Reactivity of Organosilicon Additives with Water in Li-ion Batteries

Introducing small volumes of organosilicon-containing additives as part of lithium-ion battery (LIB) electrolyte engineering has been getting a lot of attention owing to these additives’ multifunctional properties. Tris(trimethylsilyl)phosphate (TMSPa) is a prominent member of this class of additives and scavenges Lewis bases such as water, although the rate at which the reaction occurs and the fate of the resultant product in the battery system still remain unknown. Herein, we have employed complementary nuclear magnetic resonance and gas chromatography–mass spectrometry to systematically study the reactivity of TMSPa with water in conventional organic carbonate solvents mimicking the Li-ion cell environment. The reaction products are identified, and a working reaction pathway is proposed by following the chemical evolution of the products over varying time and temperatures. We found that the main reaction products are trimethylsilanol (TMSOH) and phosphoric acid (H₃PO₄); however, various P–O–Si-containing intermediates were also found. Similar to water, the Lewis base TMSOH can undergo reaction with TMSPa at room temperature to form hexamethyldisiloxane and can also activate ethylene carbonate (EC) ring-opening reactions at elevated temperatures (≥80 °C), yielding a TMS derivative with ethylene glycol (TMS-EG). While the formation of TMS-EG at the expense of EC is in principle an unwanted parasitic reaction, it should be noted that this reaction is only activated at elevated temperatures in comparison to EC ring-opening by H₂O, which takes place at ≥40 °C. Thus, the study underlines the advantages of organo-silicon compounds as electrolyte additives. Elucidating the reaction mechanism in model systems like this is important for future studies of similar additives in order to improve the accuracy of additive exploration in LIBs.