Abstract
Fast charging (at rates greater than 4 C) is essential for high-energy lithium-ion batteries in electric vehicles yet remains challenging owing to a lack of understanding of fast-charging barriers. Conventional optimization strategies concentrate on shortening lithium-ion transport pathways through electrode structure modification, which often compromises energy densities. In this work, we demonstrate that thick-electrode fast charging is constrained by solvent withdrawal within porous electrodes and the resulting electro-osmotic drag polarization, which is driven by cation-induced electro-osmotic drag. To reduce electro-osmotic drag polarization, we designed electrolytes with weak cation solvation and strong anion solvation, where a difluorinated solvent weakens lithium-cation solvation and its difluoromethyl hydrogen atoms enhance anion solvation through hydrogen bonding. This electrolyte enables thick-electrode, energy-dense batteries to achieve 80% charge within 13 minutes.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 745-750 |
| Number of pages | 6 |
| Journal | Science |
| Volume | 390 |
| Issue number | 6774 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Nov 13 2025 |
Funding
Certain trade names and company products are mentioned in the text or identified in an illustration in order to adequately specify the experimental procedure and equipment used. In no case does such identification imply recommendation or endorsement by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, nor does it imply that the products are necessarily the best available for the purpose. Official contributions from the National Institute of Standards and Technology are not subject to copyright in the United States. This work was supported by the US Department of Energy, Basic Energy Science (award no. DE-SC0023408).