Probing the effect of ethylene carbonate on optimizing the halogen-free electrolyte performance for Mg sulfur batteries

Abstract

Magnesium metal batteries attract great attention for their high volumetric capacity and safety as a post-lithium choice. The strategy of adding organic plasticizer may bring new insights into designing halogen-free electrolytes for the further development of magnesium–sulfur batteries. The high charge density of Mg²⁺ results in a high desolvation barrier and low interfacial Mg²⁺ transfer kinetics due to the strong coulombic interactions of Mg²⁺ ions with anions and solvent molecules. In this study, we test the effect of the stoichiometric ratio of ethylene carbonate (EC) as an organic additive on the electrochemical performance of halogen-free electrolyte (HFE) based on Mg(NO₃)₂ in acetonitrile (ACN) and tetraethylene glycol dimethyl ether (G4). Through various characterization methods, the introduction of EC perturbs the bonding scheme of the HFE electrolyte, enhances the ionic conductivity, reduces the relaxation time, and forms a resistive solid electrolyte interphase (SEI). The assembled Mg–S full cell using modified HFE (HFE_EC) delivers initial specific capacities of 900 m Ag⁻¹ with a cycle life of up to 10 cycles in the case of activating the cell with electrochemical conditioning. This study sheds light on the interplay of EC and the interfacial kinetics in Mg batteries and opens a door for designing novel magnesium electrolytes.