Sustainable Lithium‐Metal Battery Achieved by a Safe Electrolyte Based on Recyclable and Low‐Cost Molecular Sieve

Abstract As one typical clean‐energy technologies, lithium‐metal batteries, especially high‐energy‐density batteries which use concentrated electrolytes hold promising prospect for the development of a sustainable world. However, concentrated electrolytes with aggregative configurations were achieved at the expense of using extra dose of costly and environmental‐unfriendly salts/additives, which casts a shadow over the development of a sustainable world. Herein, without using any expensive salts/additives, we employed commercially‐available low‐cost and environmental‐friendly molecular sieves (zeolite) to sieve the solvation sheath of lithium ions of classic commercialized electrolyte (LiPF 6 ‐EC/DMC), and resulting in a unique zeolite sieved electrolyte which was more aggregative than conventional concentrated electrolytes. Inspiringly, the new‐designed electrolyte exhibited largely enhanced anti‐oxidation stability under high‐voltage (4.6 volts) and elevated temperature (55 °C). NCM‐811//Li cells assembled with this electrolyte delivered ultra‐stable rechargeabilities (over 1000 cycles for half‐cell; 300 cycles for pouch‐cell). More importantly, sustainable NCM‐811//Li pouch‐cell with negligible capacity decay can also be obtained through using recyclable zeolite sieved electrolyte. This conceptually‐new way in preparing safe and highly‐efficient electrolyte by using low‐price molecular sieve would accelerate the development of high‐energy‐density lithium‐ion/lithium‐metal batteries.