A Salt‐in‐Metal Anode: Stabilizing the Solid Electrolyte Interphase to Enable Prolonged Battery Cycling

A Salt‐in‐Metal Anode: Stabilizing the Solid Electrolyte Interphase to Enable Prolonged Battery Cycling

Advanced Functional Materials

10.1002/adfm.202010602

https://doi.org/10.1002/adfm.202010602

Lin Fu, Xiancheng Wang, Li Wang, Mintao Wan, Yuanjian Li, Zhao Cai, Yuchen Tan, Guocheng Li, Renming Zhan, Zhi Wei Seh, Yongming Sun

Batteries

03 March 2021

Fu, L., Wang, X., Wang, L., Wan, M., Li, Y., Cai, Z., Tan, Y., Li, G., Zhan, R., Seh, Z. W., Sun, Y., A Salt‐in‐Metal Anode: Stabilizing the Solid Electrolyte Interphase to Enable Prolonged Battery Cycling. Adv. Funct. Mater. 2021, 2010602. https://doi.org/10.1002/adfm.202010602

Metallic lithium (Li) is the ultimate anode candidate for high‐energy‐density rechargeable batteries. However, its practical application is hindered by serious problems, including uncontrolled dendritic Li growth and undesired side reactions. In this study a concept of “salt‐in‐metal” is proposed, and a Li/LiNO3 composite foil is constructed such that a classic electrolyte additive, LiNO3, is embedded successfully into the bulk structure of metallic Li by a facile mechanical kneading approach. The LiNO3 reacts with metallic Li to generate Li+ conductive species (e.g., Li3N and LiNxOy) over the entire electrode. These derivatives afford a stable solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) and effectively regulate the uniformity of the nucleation/growth of Li on initial plating, featuring a low nucleation energy barrier and large crystalline size without mossy morphology. Importantly, these derivatives combined with LiNO3 can in‐situ repair the damaged SEI from the large volume change during Li plating/stripping, enabling a stable electrode‐electrolyte interface and suppressing side reactions between metallic Li and electrolyte. Stable cycling with a high capacity retention of 93.1% after 100 cycles is obtained for full cells consisting of high‐loading LiCoO2 cathode (≈20 mg cm−2) and composite metallic Li anode with 25 wt% LiNO3 under a lean electrolyte condition (≈12 µL) at 0.5 C.

PublisherCopyrights

Y. S. acknowledges the financial support by and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 52002136, 51802105), and the Innovation Fund of Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics of Huazhong University of Science and Technology. Z. C. thanks the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (No. 2018M640694, 2020T130223). Z. W. S. acknowledges the support of the Singapore National Research Foundation (NRF-NRFF2017-04). The authors would like to thank the Analytical and Testing Center of Huazhong University of Science and Technology as well as the Center for Nanoscale Characterization & Devices of Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics for providing the facilities to conduct the characterization.

This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Fu, L., Wang, X., Wang, L., Wan, M., Li, Y., Cai, Z., Tan, Y., Li, G., Zhan, R., Seh, Z. W., Sun, Y., A Salt‐in‐Metal Anode: Stabilizing the Solid Electrolyte Interphase to Enable Prolonged Battery Cycling. Adv. Funct. Mater. 2021, 2010602. https://doi.org/10.1002/adfm.202010602, which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1002/adfm.202010602. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived Versions.

https://oar.a-star.edu.sg/communities-collections/articles/17442

1616-3028

Institute of Materials Research and Engineering