TOUGH · Toward Tough Amorphous Electrolytes and Stable Interfaces in Solid-State Batteries
Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2022-03-01 → 2024-03-31
- EU contribution
- €219,312
- Participants
- 1
- Scheme
- MSCA-IF
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.
Results in brief
Toward Tough Amorphous Electrolytes and Stable Interfaces in Solid-State Batteries
Development of safe and efficient batteries is one of the key technologies for the sustainable society and world. While lithium-ion batteries have revolutionized the portable electronics, large-scale energy storage calls for improvements in battery performance, energy density, safety, and cost. A major research effort has focused on replacing the traditional liquid electrolytes with solid-state electrolytes to improve safety by avoiding the flammable liquid electrolyte, enable higher energy density and longer cycle lifetime. Among the different solid electrolyte candidates, amorphous (disordered) solid electrolytes show good ionic conductivity, interfacial contact, and compliant mechanical behavior. They also feature isotropic ionic conduction, zero grain-boundary resistance, easy film fabrication, and low cost. In general, the ionic conductivity of amorphous electrolytes is higher than that of crystalline electrolytes made of the same elements. Solid-state lithium metal batteries using a solid electrolyte show potential for providing improved safety as well as higher energy and power density compared with conventional lithium-ion batteries. However, two critical bottlenecks remain: the development of solid electrolytes with ionic conductivities comparable to those of conventional liquid electrolytes and the creation of stable interfaces between solid-state battery components. This project has focused on developing amorphous based solid-state electrolytes with high ionic conductivity and improving the mechanical reliability of interfaces in solid-state lithium metal batteries. This project elucidates the mechanical behavior of amorphous solid electrolyte/electrode interfaces to enable improved performance of all solid-state lithium metal batteries. Specifically, via the regulation of amorphous electrolyte composition and structure to improve the toughness, interface stability, and lithium-ion conductivity of amorphous based solid-state electrolytes. The ambitious goal has been achieved using a strategy based on both experiments and atomistic simulations to complement and advance each other.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
Renewable wind and solar energy production and electrification of transport require battery systems to store the electricity until it is needed. Lithium batteries have been very successful, but further improvements are needed in terms of safety, performance, efficiency, cost, and lifetime. The use of solid instead of liquid electrolytes offers a key step forward, but slow kinetics is the Archilles’ heel of solid electrolytes. This problem can be addressed by using amorphous (disordered) instead of crystalline electrolytes, but in turn these suffer from low fracture resistance, compromising long-term performance.In the proposed project, we will elucidate the mechanical behavior of amorphous solid electrolyte/electrode interfaces. The aim is to optimize the electrolyte composition and structure to simultaneously achieve high toughness, stable interfaces, and high lithium ion conductivity. To this end, we will first understand the structure-conductivity relations in disordered and partially ordered sulfide electrolytes (Task 1). Then the mechanical properties of the individual phases and interfaces will be explored in constructed all solid-state batteries (Task 2). These experiments will be complemented by atomistic simulations to understand the structural changes in the investigated systems during battery operation (Task 3).The project builds on complementary expertise of the fellow applicant (battery materials) and supervisor (mechanics, amorphous materials). Together with the research and training environment provided by the host organization (Aalborg University, Denmark), this will ensure the achievement of this timely and innovative project as well as the dissemination and exploitation of the expected results. These research outputs will lead to new amorphous materials that can be integrated in future all solid-state batteries. The fellow applicant will emerge from the project with new skills, and the capability to launch his own research group.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- AALBORG UNIVERSITET · AalborgCoordinatorDenmark
Links
- View on CORDIS
- DOI: 10.3030/101017990
- https://vbn.aau.dk/en/projects/tough-toward-tough-amorphous-electrolytes-and-stable-interfaces-i
Data: CORDIS, © European Union