Machine learning-guided discovery of ionic polymer electrolytes for lithium metal batteries

As essential components of ionic polymer electrolytes (IPEs), ionic liquids (ILs) with high ionic conductivity and wide electrochemical window are promising candidates to enable safe and high-energy-density lithium metal batteries (LMBs). Here, we describe a machine learning workflow embedded with quantum calculation and graph convolutional neural network to discover potential ILs for IPES. By selecting subsets of the recommended ILs, combining with a rigid-rod polyelectrolyte and a lithium salt, we develop a series of thin (~50 µm) and robust (>200 MPa) IPE membranes. The Li|IPEs|Li cells exhibit ultrahigh critical-current-density (6 mA cm⁻²) at 80 °C. The Li|IPES|LiFePO₄ (10.3 mg cm⁻²) cells deliver outstanding capacity retention in 350 cycles (>96% at 0.5C; >80% at 2C), fast charge/discharge capability (146 mAh g⁻¹ at 3C) and excellent efficiency (>99.92%). This performance is rarely reported by other single-layer polymer electrolytes without any flammable organics for LMBs.

Kai Li, Jifeng Wang, Yuanyuan Song, Ying Wang