Suppressing Dendrite Growth with Eco-Friendly Sodium Lignosulfonate Additive in Quasi-Solid-State Li Metal Battery

Yingkang Tian; Xinyang Chen; Xuejie Gao; Hanyan Wu; Chen Cheng; Shuiping Cai; Wenfeng Ren; Xiaofei Yang; Runcang Sun

doi:10.3390/molecules28196905

Suppressing Dendrite Growth with Eco-Friendly Sodium Lignosulfonate Additive in Quasi-Solid-State Li Metal Battery

Molecules. 2023 Oct 2;28(19):6905. doi: 10.3390/molecules28196905.

Authors

Yingkang Tian¹, Xinyang Chen¹, Xuejie Gao¹, Hanyan Wu¹, Chen Cheng¹, Shuiping Cai¹, Wenfeng Ren¹, Xiaofei Yang², Runcang Sun¹

Affiliations

¹ Center for Lignocellulosic Chemistry and Biomaterials, College of Light Industry and Chemical Engineering, Dalian Polytechnic University, Dalian 116034, China.
² Division of Energy Storage, Dalian National Laboratory for Clean Energy, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 457 Zhongshan Road, Dalian 116023, China.

Abstract

The application of lithium metal batteries is limited by the drawbacks of safety problems and Li dendrite formation. Quasi-solid-state electrolytes (QSSEs) are the most promising alternatives to commercial liquid electrolytes due to their high safety and great compatibility with electrodes. However, Li dendrite formation and the slow Li⁺ diffusion in QSSEs severely hinder uniform Li deposition, thus leading to Li dendrite growth and short circuits. Herein, an eco-friendly and low-cost sodium lignosulfonate (LSS)-assisted PVDF-based QSSE is proposed to induce uniform Li deposition and inhibit Li dendrite growth. Li symmetric cells with 5%-LSS QSSE possess a high Li⁺ transfer number of 0.79, and they exhibit a long cycle life of 1000 h at a current density/areal capacity of 1 mA cm^-2/5 mAh cm^-2. Moreover, due to the fast electrochemical dynamics endowed by the improved compatibility of the electrodes and fast Li⁺ diffusion, the LFP/5%-LSS/Li full cells still maintain a high capacity of 110 mAh g^-1 after 250 cycles at 6C. This work provides a novel and promising choice that uses eco-friendly LSS as an additive to PVDF-based QSSE in Li metal batteries.

Keywords: Li dendrite suppression; PVDF-based electrolyte; quasi-solid-state Li metatteries; sodium lignosulfonate.

Grants and funding

This research was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 22208039, No. 51961125207); the Basic Scientific Research Project of the Educational Department of Liaoning Province (LJKMZ20220878); the Dalian Science and Technology Talent Innovation Support Plan (2022RQ036); and the Dalian Polytechnic University (6102072202, 2023044).