Enabling "lithium-free" manufacturing of pure lithium metal solid-state batteries through in situ plating.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 33060571.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-020-19004-4 and PMC identifier 7567811.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
The coupling of solid-state electrolytes with a Li-metal anode and state-of-the-art (SOA) cathode materials is a promising path to develop inherently safe batteries with high energy density (>1000 Wh L<sup>-1</sup>). However, integrating metallic Li with solid-electrolytes using scalable processes is not only challenging, but also adds extraneous volume since SOA cathodes are fully lithiated. Here we show the potential for "Li-free" battery manufacturing using the Li<sub>7</sub>La<sub>3</sub>Zr<sub>2</sub>O<sub>12</sub> (LLZO) electrolyte. We demonstrate that Li-metal anodes >20 μm can be electroplated onto a current collector in situ without LLZO degradation and we propose a model to relate electrochemical and nucleation behavior. A full cell consisting of in situ formed Li, LLZO, and NCA is demonstrated, which exhibits stable cycling over 50 cycles with high Coulombic efficiencies. These findings demonstrate the viability of "Li-free" configurations using LLZO which may guide the design and manufacturing of high energy density solid-state batteries.