Self-Regulated Phenomenon of Inorganic Artificial Solid Electrolyte Interphase for Lithium Metal Batteries

Bing Han; Dongyu Feng; Shuai Li; Zhen Zhang; Yucheng Zou; Meng Gu; Hong Meng; Chaoyang Wang; Kang Xu; Yusheng Zhao; Hongbo Zeng; Chunsheng Wang; Yonghong Deng

doi:10.1021/acs.nanolett.0c01400

Self-Regulated Phenomenon of Inorganic Artificial Solid Electrolyte Interphase for Lithium Metal Batteries

Nano Lett. 2020 May 13;20(5):4029-4037. doi: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.0c01400. Epub 2020 May 1.

Authors

Bing Han^{1

2}, Dongyu Feng¹, Shuai Li³, Zhen Zhang¹, Yucheng Zou¹, Meng Gu¹, Hong Meng², Chaoyang Wang⁴, Kang Xu⁵, Yusheng Zhao³, Hongbo Zeng⁶, Chunsheng Wang⁷, Yonghong Deng¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Materials Science & Engineering, Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Solid-State Batteries, Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech), Shenzhen 518055, China.
² Advanced Materials, Peking University Shenzhen Graduate School, Shenzhen 518055, China.
³ Department of Physics, Academy for Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies, Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech), Shenzhen 518055, China.
⁴ Research Institute of Materials Science, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510640, China.
⁵ Electrochemistry Branch, Sensors and Electron Devices Directorate, US Army Research Laboratory, 2800 Powder Mill Road, Adelphi, Maryland 20783, United States.
⁶ Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB T6G 1H9, Canada.
⁷ Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742, United States.

PMID: 32343592
DOI: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.0c01400

Abstract

Solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) is crucial for suppressing Li dendrite growth in high-energy lithium metal (LiM) batteries. Unfortunately, the naturally formed SEI on the LiM anode surface in carbonate electrolytes cannot suppress Li dendrites, resulting in a continuous consumption of electrolytes and LiM during cycling. Artificial SEI normally lacks self-healing and self-regulating capability, gradually losing the effectiveness during cycling. In this work, we report the self-regulating phenomenon of LiRAP-ASEI that can effectively suppress Li dendrites and is investigated using in situ optical microscopy and COMSOL multiphysics simulation. The effectiveness of self-regulated LiRAP-ASEI is further evaluated in the most aggressive Li/sulfur cells with a lean electrolyte (10 μL mAh^-1) and LiRAP-ASEI/LiM (2.5-fold excess of LiM). The LiRAP@Cu∥sulfur@C cells show a stable 3000 cycle life at a current density of 11.5 mA cm^-2. The self-regulated phenomenon holds great promise for the development of high-energy-density LMBs.

Keywords: cryogenic electron microscopy; inorganic artificial SEI; lithium metal batteries; self-regulated phenomenon.