Novel Pyrrolinium-based Ionic Liquids for Lithium Ion Batteries: Effect of the Cation on Physicochemical and Electrochemical Properties

Lithium ion batteries (LIBs) are one of the most promising energy conversion/storage systems, but the low thermal stability of the current electrolytes in LIBs should be improved to expand their potential applications. To enhance the safety properties of LIBs, novel pyrrolinium-based ionic liquids (ILs) were proposed as an alternative electrolyte to the current carbonate electrolyte, which have some task-specific functional groups, i.e., a planar CN double bond, a C-O ether linkage, and no unstable C-H bond, designed to improve their electrochemical performances as well as the physicochemical properties. As a result, the pyrrolinium-based ILs exhibited much improved physicochemical and electrochemical properties compared to those of the known ILs. Among the prepared ILs, N-allyl-2-methoxypyrrolinium bis(fluorosulfonyl)imide (A(OMe)Pyrl-FSI, 4) showed the high ionic conductivity (10.2 mS cm−1), the very good cycling performance (99.3% of retention ratio after 50 cycles) with a LiFePO4 electrode, and the much improved lithium ion transference number (0.19). IL 4 also had the remarkable rate capability at 5 C-rate with the retention ratio of 81.2% (124.8 mA h g−1), compared to the initial discharge capacity of 153.7 mA h g−1 at 0.1 C-rate. In addition, both their high thermal stability and non-flammability were also confirmed.