What are conducting salts?

Conducting salts for lithium-ion batteries are based on lithium-salts of weakly coordinating anions, where the negative charge is delocalized over a large area of non-nucleophilic and chemically stable moieties in order to achieve a good ion-pair dissociation into fully solvated ions in the used electrolyte solvents. Various lithium-salts are well established as conducting salts. Among all salts, LiPF6 remains the only candidate to be used in the majority of commercial lithium-ion batteries, due to its well-balanced properties, such as high ionic conductivity, good electrochemical stability, effective aluminum current collector passivation and effective solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) formation on highly graphitic anodes. Nevertheless, the P-F bond is labile towards trace amounts of moisture, resulting in poor chemical stability. The extent of hydrolysis is increased at higher temperatures.