Electrolytes for high-energy lithium batteries

From aqueous liquid electrolytes for lithium–air cells to ionic liquid electrolytes that permit continuous, high-rate cycling of secondary batteries comprising metallic lithium anodes, we show that many of the key impediments to progress in developing next-generation batteries with high specific energies can be overcome with cleaver designs of the electrolyte. When these designs are coupled with as cleverly engineered electrode configurations that control chemical interactions between the electrolyte and electrode or by simple additives-based schemes for manipulating physical contact between the electrolyte and electrode, we further show that rechargeable battery configurations can be facilely designed to achieve desirable safety, energy density and cycling performance.