Uncoordinated chemistry enables highly conductive and stable electrolyte/filler interfaces for solid-state lithium-sulfur batteries.

Abstract

Composite-polymer-electrolytes (CPEs) embedded with advanced filler materials offer great promise for fast and preferential Li⁺ conduction. The filler surface chemistry determines the interaction with electrolyte molecules and thus critically regulates the Li⁺ behaviors at the interfaces. Herein, we probe into the role of electrolyte/filler interfaces (EFI) in CPEs and promote Li⁺ conduction by introducing an unsaturated coordination Prussian blue analog (UCPBA) filler. Combining scanning transmission X-ray microscope stack imaging studies and first-principle calculations, fast Li⁺ conduction is revealed only achievable at a chemically stable EFI, which can be established by the unsaturated Co-O coordination in UCPBA to circumvent the side reactions. Moreover, the as-exposed Lewis-acid metal centers in UCPBA efficiently attract the Lewis-base anions of Li salts, which facilitates the Li⁺ disassociation and enhances its transference number (t_Li⁺). Attributed to these superiorities, the obtained CPEs realize high room-temperature ionic conductivity up to 0.36 mS cm^-1 and t_Li⁺ of 0.6, enabling an excellent cyclability of lithium metal electrodes over 4,000 h as well as remarkable capacity retention of 97.6% over 180 cycles at 0.5 C for solid-state lithium-sulfur batteries. This work highlights the crucial role of EFI chemistry in developing highly conductive CPEs and high-performance solid-state batteries.