Regulating Frozen Electrolyte Structure with Colloidal Dispersion for Low Temperature Aqueous Batteries.

ABSTRACT

Electrolyte freezing under low temperatures is a critical challenge for the development of aqueous batteries (ABs). While lowering the freezing point of the electrolyte has caught major research efforts, limited attention has been paid to the structural evolution during the electrolyte freezing process and regulating the frozen electrolyte structure for low temperature ABs. Here, we reveal the formation process of interconnected liquid regions for ion transport in frozen electrolytes with various in situ variable-temperature technologies. More importantly, the low-temperature performance of ABs was significantly improved with the colloidal electrolyte design using graphene oxide quantum dots (GOQDs), which effectively inhibits the growth of ice crystals and expands the interconnected liquid regions for facial ion transport. This work provides new insights and a promising strategy for the electrolyte design of low-temperature ABs.