Designing Bilayer Heterostructure Functional Polymer Electrolytes with Interfacial Engineering Strategy for High‐Performance Lithium Metal Batteries

Abstract

Abstract The uncontrollable lithium (Li) dendrites growth and complex electrode/electrolyte interface (EEI) problems are hindering the further application of high energy density lithium metal batteries (LMBs) in practice. Herein, a bilayer heterostructure gel polymer electrolyte (BGPE) is designed by directly curing functional boron‐containing monomers on the electrode surface to ensure excellent conductivity while solving the interface problems, achieving durable high voltage resistance and Li dendrites suppression. The unoccupied p ‐orbital boron moiety of the 3D crosslinked network in BGPE not only improves the Li + transference number (0.78), but also enhances the interfacial stability of the Li metal and inhibits the dendrites growth by anchoring PF 6 − anions and regulating the uniform Li deposition, thus ensuring a long cycle for Li/BGPE/Li cells. In addition, the functional additives tris(trimethylsilyl) phosphite and tris(pentafluorophenyl)borane can preferentially oxidize and decompose to form stable B, F, and Si‐rich EEIs, and effectively regulate the uniform growth of EEI. Thus, the LiNi 0.5 Co 0.2 Mn 0.3 O 2 /BGPE/Li and LiFePO 4 /BGPE/Li full cells exhibit stable cycling and excellent rate performance. This work provides a guiding design direction to address the EEI problems for high energy density LMBs.