Understanding Electrolytes and Interface Chemistry for Sustainable Nonaqueous Metal-CO Batteries.

Metal-carbon dioxide (CO) batteries hold great promise for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and are regarded as one of the most promising energy storage techniques due to their efficiency advantages in CO recovery and conversion. Moreover, rechargeable nonaqueous metal-CO batteries have attracted much attention due to their high theoretical energy density. However, the stability issues of the electrode-electrolyte interfaces of nonaqueous metal-CO (lithium (Li)/sodium (Na)/potassium (K)-CO) batteries have been troubling its development, and a large number of related research in the field of electrolytes have conducted in recent years. This review retraces the short but rapid research history of nonaqueous metal-CO batteries with a detailed electrochemical mechanism analysis. Then it focuses on the basic characteristics and design principles of electrolytes, summarizes the latest achievements of various types of electrolytes in a timely manner and deeply analyzes the construction strategies of stable electrode-electrolyte interfaces for metal-CO batteries. Finally, the key issues related to electrolytes and interface engineering are fully discussed and several potential directions for future research are proposed. This review enriches a comprehensive understanding of electrolytes and interface engineering toward the practical applications of next-generation metal-CO batteries.