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Ultrafast thermo-responsive electrolyte for enhanced safety in lithium metal batteries

Nature Energy volume 10, pages 1493–1502 (2025)Cite this article

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Abstract

Short circuits in lithium metal batteries caused by separator failure at elevated temperatures present a critical thermal safety challenge. Smart, temperature-responsive materials offer a promising way to prevent short circuits, yet practical systems with sufficiently fast response times have not been realized. Here we propose a thermo-responsive electrolyte that undergoes a rapid liquid-to-solid phase transition upon heating, offering a highly effective strategy to enhance lithium metal battery safety. The electrolyte leverages LiPF6 to initiate cationic polymerization, enabling solidification within seconds at a temperature threshold near the separator’s melting point. This fast phase change forms an effective heat shield that prevents internal short circuits and thermal runaway. Demonstrated in LiFePO4||Li pouch cells, the electrolyte ensures stable operation up to 90 °C and completely suppresses thermal runaway. Notably, the transition temperature can be tuned between 100 °C and 150 °C, allowing compatibility with various commercial separators. This ultrafast thermo-responsive electrolyte offers a pathway towards the design of intrinsically safe lithium metal batteries.

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Fig. 1: The design strategy for intrinsically safe LMBs.
Fig. 2: The thermal dynamics of the polymerization process.
Fig. 3: Electrochemical behaviour of LFP-based cells equipped with various electrolytes.
Fig. 4: Analyses on the combustibility of the electrolytes and thermal safety issues of cycled LFP||Li pouch cells.
Fig. 5: Mechanism of cationic polymerization for TDT electrolyte.

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All of the data are included within this article and its Supplementary Information. Source data are provided with this paper.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2023YFB2406100), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant numbers 92372207 and 92572106) and Zhejiang Province Natural Science Foundation (LQN25E020003).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Advanced Technology for Materials Synthesis and Processing, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan, People’s Republic of China

    Chao Yang, Wenxi Hu, Xing Zhou, Xiaowei Liu, Dawei Xu, Meilong Wang, Youcai Zhang, Wen Chen & Ya You

  2. National Engineering Lab for Textile Fiber Materials and Processing Technology, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Zhejiang Sci-Tech University, Hangzhou, People’s Republic of China

    Chao Yang

  3. College of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, People’s Republic of China

    Mengting Zheng, Jingting Yang & Jun Lu

  4. Quzhou Institute of Power Battery and Grid Energy Storage, Quzhou, People’s Republic of China

    Jun Lu

  5. International School of Materials Science and Engineering, School of Materials Science and Microelectronics, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan, People’s Republic of China

    Ya You

  6. Hubei Longzhong Laboratory, Wuhan University of Technology Xiangyang Demonstration Zone, Xiangyang, People’s Republic of China

    Ya You

Authors
  1. Chao Yang
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Contributions

Y.Y. conceived the idea of the smart electrolyte. C.Y., W.H. and M.Z. processed and analysed the experimental data and prepared the figures. X.L. performed the calculation part of the work. X.Z. and D.X. conducted the assembly and testing of the pouch cells. X.Z., Y.Z. and M.W. investigated the mechanism of electrolyte polymerization. Y.Y. and J.L. supervised the research. Y.Y. and J.L. wrote the paper. M.Z., J.Y. and W.C. helped revise the paper. All authors discussed the results and commented on the paper writing. C.Y., W.H. and M.Z. contributed equally to this work.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Jun Lu or Ya You.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Peer review information

Nature Energy thanks Jie Sun and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Supplementary information

Supplementary Information (download PDF )

Supplementary Figs. 1–36, discussion and Note 1.

Source data

Source Data Fig. 2c,e (download XLSX )

Unprocessed data of NMR and the ternary phase diagram.

Source Data Fig. 4b,c (download XLSX )

Unprocessed data of temperature–time curves and dT/dt–T curves from ARC tests.

Source Data Fig. 5b (download XLSX )

Calculation data of the activation energy (∆E) of various polymerization types.

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Yang, C., Hu, W., Zheng, M. et al. Ultrafast thermo-responsive electrolyte for enhanced safety in lithium metal batteries. Nat Energy 10, 1493–1502 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41560-025-01905-7

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