New Technique for Probing the Protecting Character of the Solid Electrolyte Interphase as a Critical but Elusive Property for Pursuing Long Cycle Life Lithium-Ion Batteries

The formation of a protecting nanolayer, so-called solid electrolyte interphase (SEI), on the negative electrode of Li-ion batteries (LIBs) from product precipitation of the cathodic decomposition of the electrolyte is a blessing since the electrically insulating nature of this nanolayer protects the electrode surface, preventing continuous electrolyte decomposition and enabling the large nominal cell voltage of LIBs, e.g., 3.3-3.8 V. Thus, the protection performance of the nanolayer SEI is essential for LIBs to achieve a long cycle life. Unfortunately, the evaluation of this critical property of the SEI is not trivial. Herein, a new, cheap, and easily implementable methodology, the redox-mediated enhanced coulometry, is presented to estimate the protecting quality of the SEI. The key element of the methodology is the addition of a redox mediator in the electrolyte during the degassing step (after the SEI formation cycle). The redox mediator leads to an internal self-discharge process that is inversely proportional to the protecting character of the SEI. Also, the self-discharge process results in an easily measurable decrease in Coulombic efficiency. The influence of vinylene carbonate as an electrolyte additive in the resulting SEI is used as a case study to showcase the potential of the proposed methodology.