A Quasi-Solid-State Polymer Lithium-Metal Battery with Minimal Excess Lithium, Ultrathin Separator, and High-Mass Loading NMC811 Cathode

Gerrit Homann; Qing Wang; Sufu Liu; Antoine Devincenti; Pranav Karanth; Mark Weijers; Fokko M Mulder; Matiss Piesins; Tom Gouveia; Alix Ladam; Sebastien Fantini; Corsin Battaglia

doi:10.1021/acsaem.4c02099

A Quasi-Solid-State Polymer Lithium-Metal Battery with Minimal Excess Lithium, Ultrathin Separator, and High-Mass Loading NMC811 Cathode

ACS Appl Energy Mater. 2024 Oct 31;7(21):10037-10043. doi: 10.1021/acsaem.4c02099. eCollection 2024 Nov 11.

Authors

Gerrit Homann¹, Qing Wang¹, Sufu Liu¹, Antoine Devincenti¹, Pranav Karanth², Mark Weijers², Fokko M Mulder², Matiss Piesins³, Tom Gouveia⁴, Alix Ladam⁴, Sebastien Fantini⁴, Corsin Battaglia^{1

5

6}

Affiliations

¹ Empa-Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, Überlandstrasse 129, 8600 Dübendorf, Switzerland.
² Delft University of Technology, Chemical Engineering Department, Van der Maasweg 9, Delft 2629HZ, The Netherlands.
³ Sidrabe Vacuum, Krustpils Iela 17, Riga 1073, Latvia.
⁴ Solvionic, 11 Chemin des Silos, Toulouse 31100, France.
⁵ ETH Zurich, Department of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering, Gloriastrasse 35, 8092 Zürich, Switzerland.
⁶ EPFL, School of Engineering, Institute of Materials, Station 7, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland.

Abstract

Solid-state batteries with lithium metal anodes are considered the next major technology leap with respect to today's lithium-ion batteries, as they promise a significant increase in energy density. Expectations for solid-state batteries from the automotive and aviation sectors are high, but their implementation in industrial production remains challenging. Here, we report a solid-state lithium-metal battery enabled by a polymer electrolyte consisting of a poly(DMADAFSI) cationic polymer and LiFSI in Pyr₁₃FSI as plasticizer. The polymer electrolyte is infiltrated and solidified in the pores of a commercial LiNi_0.8Mn_0.1Co_0.1O₂ (NMC811) cathode with up to 2.8 mAh cm^-2 nominal areal capacity and in the pores of a 25 μm thin commercial polypropylene separator. Cathode and separator are finally laminated into a cell in combination with a commercial 20 μm thin lithium metal anode. Our demonstration of a solid-state polymer battery cycling at full nominal capacity employing exclusively commercially available components available at industrial scale represents a critical step forward toward the commercialization of a competitive all-solid-state battery technology.