Lithium bis(fluorosulfonyl)imide (LiFSI) as conducting salt for nonaqueous liquid electrolytes for lithium-ion batteries: Physicochemical and electrochemical properties

Abstract Lithium bis(fluorosulfonyl)imide (LiFSI) has been studied as conducting salt for lithium-ion batteries, in terms of the physicochemical and electrochemical properties of the neat LiFSI salt and its nonaqueous liquid electrolytes. Our pure LiFSI salt shows a melting point at 145 °C, and is thermally stable up to 200 °C. It exhibits far superior stability towards hydrolysis than LiPF 6 . Among the various lithium salts studied at the concentration of 1.0 M (= mol dm −3 ) in a mixture of ethylene carbonate (EC)/ethyl methyl carbonate (EMC) (3:7, v/v), LiFSI shows the highest conductivity in the order of LiFSI > LiPF 6  > Li[N(SO 2 CF 3 ) 2 ] (LiTFSI) > LiClO 4  > LiBF 4 . The stability of Al in the high potential region (3.0–5.0 V vs. Li + /Li) has been confirmed for high purity LiFSI-based electrolytes using cyclic voltammetry, SEM morphology, and chronoamperometry, whereas Al corrosion indeed occurs in the LiFSI-based electrolytes tainted with trace amounts of LiCl (50 ppm). With high purity, LiFSI outperforms LiPF 6 in both Li/LiCoO 2 and graphite/LiCoO 2 cells.