Bridging the best of both electrolyte worlds for a better lithium-ion battery
Researchers apply a ceramic conductor to a polymer electrolyte to increase conductivity
Peer-Reviewed PublicationIMAGE:
A NEWLY DEVELOPED CERAMIC FILLER MAY HELP ALLEVIATE LIMITATIONS OF COMPOSITE SOLID-STATE ELECTROLYTES. THE FILLER NOT ONLY MITIGATES INTERFACE BARRIERS BETWEEN THE COMPOSITE COMPONENTS, BUT IT ALSO PROVIDES AN ADDITIONAL LITHIUM-ION TRANSPORT PATHWAY, INCREASING THE NUMBER OF IONS AND THE SPEED WITH WHICH THEY MOVE THROUGH THE ELECTROLYTE.
view moreCREDIT: ENERGY MATERIALS AND DEVICES, TSINGHUA UNIVERSITY PRESS
Lithium-ion batteries powered the device on which these words appear. From phones and laptops to electric vehicles, lithium-ion batteries are critical to the technology of the modern world — but they can also explode. Comprising negatively and positively charged electrodes and an electrolyte to transport ions across the divide, lithium-ion batteries are only as good as the limitations of their components. Liquid electrolytes are potentially volatile at high temperatures, and their efficiency can be limited by nonuniformity and instabilities in the other components.
Researchers are working toward developing safer, more efficient batteries with solid electrolytes, a significant change over the liquid version that currently transports ions in most commercially available batteries now. The challenge is that each solid-state material has as many drawbacks as advantages, according to a team based at the Shenzhen All-Solid-State Lithium Battery Electrolyte Engineering Research Center in Tsinghua Shenzhen International Graduate School’s Institute of Materials Research.
To solve this conundrum, the researchers combined two of the prime solid-state candidates — ceramic and polymer — into a new composite electrolyte.
They published their results on Sept. 21 in Energy Materials and Devices.
“Composite solid-state electrolytes have received significant attention due to their combined advantages as inorganic and polymer electrolytes,” said co-first author Yu Yuan, who is also affiliated with Tsinghua Shenzhen International Graduate School. “However, conventional inorganic ceramic fillers offer limited ion conductivity enhancement for composite solid-state electrolytes due to the space-charge layer between the polymer matrix and ceramic phase.”
Inorganic ceramic electrolytes offer high conductivity, but they develop resistance when faced with another solid and are complicated to synthesize. Polymer electrolytes are easier to produce, more flexible and work better with electrodes, but their conductivity at room temperature is too low for commercial application. According to Yuan, combining the two should produce a highly conductive, flexible electrolyte that is easier to synthesize. In reality, however, when mixed, the composite solid-state electrolytes have a separation — called a space-charge layer — between their constituent parts that limits their conductivity.
To correct this, the researchers used lithium tantalate, which has a crystalline structure that lends itself to unique optical and electrical properties, as a functional filler to mitigate the space-charge layer. The ceramic ion conductor material is ferroelectric, mean it can reverse electric charge when a current is applied.
“Not only does the filler alleviate the space-charge layer, but it also provides an extra lithium-ion transport pathway,” said co-first author Likun Chen, who is also affiliated with Tsinghua Shenzhen International Graduate School.
The researchers experimentally demonstrated that the lithium tantalate filler eases the bottleneck for lithium-ion transport across the polymer-ceramic interface, resulting in lithium ions moving in both increased numbers and speed through the electrolyte.
The result, the researchers said, is an electrolyte with high conductivity and a long-cycling life — referring to how often the ions can be transported across the battery in charging and discharging cycles — even at low temperatures.
“This work proposes a novel strategy for designing integrated ceramic fillers with ferroelectric and ion-conductive properties to achieve high-throughput lithium-ion transport of composite-solid electrolytes for advances solid-state lithium metal batteries,” Yuan said. “Our approach sheds light on the design of functional ceramic fillers for composite solid-state electrolytes to effectively enhance ion conductivity and battery performance.”
Other co-authors include Yuhang Li, Xufei An, Jianshuai Lv, Shaoke Guo, Xing Cheng, Yang Zhao, Ming Liu, Yan-Bing He and Feiyu Kang. Li, An, Lv, Guo, Cheng, Zhao and Kang are also affiliated with Tsinghua Shenzhen International Graduate School.
The National Natural Science Foundation of China, Key-Area Research and Development Program of Guangdong Province, Shenzhen Outstanding Talents Training Fund, All-Solid-State Lithium Battery Electrolyte Engineering Research Center and Shenzheng Technical Plan Project supported this research.
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JOURNAL
Energy Materials and Devices
ARTICLE TITLE
Functional LiTaO3 filler with tandem conductivity and ferroelectricity for PVDF-based composite solid-state electrolyte
Photo battery achieves competitive voltage
Researchers from the Universities of Freiburg and Ulm have developed a monolithically integrated photo battery using organic materials
Peer-Reviewed PublicationIMAGE:
THE MONOLITHICALLY INTEGRATED PHOTO BATTERY MADE OF ORGANIC MATERIALS ACHIEVES A DISCHARGE POTENTIAL OF 3.6 VOLTS. PICTURE: ROBIN WESSLING
view moreCREDIT: PICTURE: ROBIN WESSLING
Networked intelligent devices and sensors can improve the energy efficiency of consumer products and buildings by monitoring their consumption in real time. Miniature devices like these being developed under the concept of the Internet of Things require energy sources that are as compact as possible in order to function autonomously. Monolithically integrated batteries that simultaneously generate, convert, and store energy in a single system could be used for this purpose. A team of scientists at the University of Freiburg’s Cluster of Excellence Living, Adaptive, and Energy-Autonomous Materials Systems (livMatS) has developed a monolithically integrated photo battery consisting of an organic polymer-based battery and a multi-junction organic solar cell. The battery, presented by Rodrigo Delgado Andrés and Dr. Uli Würfel, University Freiburg, and Robin Wessling and Prof. Dr. Birgit Esser, University of Ulm, is the first monolithically integrated photo battery made of organic materials to achieve a discharge potential of 3.6 volts. It is thus among the first systems of this kind capable of powering miniature devices. The team published their results in the journal Energy & Environmental Science.
Combination of a multi-junction solar cell and a dual-ion battery
The researchers developed a scalable method for the photo battery which allows them to manufacture organic solar cells out of five active layers. “The system achieves relatively high voltages of 4.2 volts with this solar cell,” explains Wessling. The team combined this multi-junction solar cell with a so-called dual-ion battery, which is capable of being charged at high currents, unlike the cathodes of conventional lithium batteries. With careful control of illumination intensity and discharge rates, a photo battery constructed in this way is capable of rapid charging in less than 15 minutes at discharge capacities of up to 22 milliampere hours per gram (mAh g-1). In combination with the averaged discharge potential of 3.6 volts, the devices can provide an energy density of 69 milliwatt hours per gram (mWh g-1) and a power density of 95 milliwatts per gram (mW g-1). “Our system thus lays the foundation for more in-depth research and further developments in the area of organic photo batteries,” says Wessling.
About the Cluster of Excellence livMatS
The vision of the Cluster of Excellence Living, Adaptive, and Energy-Autonomous Materials Systems (livMatS) is to combine the best of both worlds – nature and technology. livMatS develops lifelike materials systems inspired by nature. These systems adapt autonomously to their environment, harvest clean energy from their surroundings, and are insensitive to or able to recover from damage.
- Original publication: Andrés, R. D., Wessling, R., Büttner, J., Pap, L., Fischer, A., Esser, B., & Würfel, U. (2023). Organic photo-battery with high operating voltage using a multi-junction organic solar cell and an organic redox-polymer-based battery. Energy & Environmental Science. DOI: 10.1039/d3ee01822a
- Prof. Dr. Birgit Esser heads the Chair in Organic Chemistry at the Institute of Organic Chemistry II and Advanced Materials at the University of Ulm. She is a member of the Clusters of Excellence Post Lithium Storage (POLiS) at Ulm University and Living, Adaptive, and Energy-Autonomous Materials Systems (livMatS) at the University of Freiburg.
- Dr. Uli Würfel leads the group “Organic and Perovskite Solar Cells” at FMF and FIT at the University of Freiburg and is a member of the Cluster of Excellence livMatS at the University of Freiburg. In addition, he is head of the research topic “Organic and Perovskite Photovoltaics” at the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (ISE).
- Rodrigo Delgado Andrés is pursuing a doctorate under Dr. Uli Würfel at the Cluster of Excellence livMatS.
- Robin Wessling is pursuing a doctorate under Prof. Dr. Birgit Esser at the Cluster of Excellence livMatS.
- The study was funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) (livMatS – EXC 2193).
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