Low temperature lithium-ion batteries electrolytes: Rational design, advancements, and future perspectives

Lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) are considered as irreplaceable energy storage technologies in modern society. However, the LIBs encounter a sharp decline in discharge capacity and discharge voltage in low temperature environment (< 0 °C), which cannot meet growing demands for portable electronics and electric vehicles at low temperature. In particular, the LIBs experience the dramatical decrease of lithium-ion conductivity in electrolyte and sluggish charge transfer process within the electrode at low temperature. Therefore, rational design on the low-temperature electrolyte is critical important for achieving excellent performance of LIBs to broaden their application scenarios at low-temperature. To this end, in this review, we firstly discuss the origination on the LIBs performance degradation at low temperature. Then, the corresponding strategies on rational tailoring traditional electrolytes (lithium salts and the solvents, including carbonate-based, carboxylate-based, ether-based and ionic liquid solvent), and the new emerging electrolytes (e.g., locally high concentrated electrolyte, liquefied gas electrolyte and polymer electrolyte) towards low-temperature LIBs are introduced. Finally, the remaining challenges and future perspectives for low-temperature LIBs are presented. It is expected that this review will shed fresh light on electrolyte design for low-temperature LIBs and accelerate widespread application of LIBs for low temperature environment.