Metal chloride perovskite thin film based interfacial layer for shielding lithium metal from liquid electrolyte

Yi-Chen Yin; Qian Wang; Jing-Tian Yang; Feng Li; Guozhen Zhang; Chen-Hui Jiang; Hong-Sheng Mo; Ji-Song Yao; Kun-Hua Wang; Fei Zhou; Huan-Xin Ju; Hong-Bin Yao

doi:10.1038/s41467-020-15643-9

Metal chloride perovskite thin film based interfacial layer for shielding lithium metal from liquid electrolyte

Nat Commun. 2020 Apr 9;11(1):1761. doi: 10.1038/s41467-020-15643-9.

Authors

Yi-Chen Yin^#^{1

2}, Qian Wang^#³, Jing-Tian Yang^#⁴, Feng Li¹, Guozhen Zhang^{5

6}, Chen-Hui Jiang⁷, Hong-Sheng Mo², Ji-Song Yao², Kun-Hua Wang², Fei Zhou¹, Huan-Xin Ju⁸, Hong-Bin Yao^{9

10}

Affiliations

¹ Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at the Microscale, University of Science and Technology of China, 230026, Hefei, Anhui, China.
² Department of Applied Chemistry, University of Science and Technology of China, 230026, Hefei, Anhui, China.
³ Department of Chemical Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, 230026, Hefei, Anhui, China.
⁴ School of the Gifted Young, University of Science and Technology of China, 230026, Hefei, Anhui, China.
⁵ Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at the Microscale, University of Science and Technology of China, 230026, Hefei, Anhui, China. guozhen@ustc.edu.cn.
⁶ Department of Chemical Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, 230026, Hefei, Anhui, China. guozhen@ustc.edu.cn.
⁷ CAS Key Laboratory of Materials for Energy Conversion, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Science and Technology of China, 230026, Hefei, Anhui, China.
⁸ PHI China Analytical Laboratory, CoreTech Integrated Limited, 402 Yinfu Road, 211102, Nanjing, China. huanxin.ju@coretechint.com.
⁹ Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at the Microscale, University of Science and Technology of China, 230026, Hefei, Anhui, China. yhb@ustc.edu.cn.
¹⁰ Department of Applied Chemistry, University of Science and Technology of China, 230026, Hefei, Anhui, China. yhb@ustc.edu.cn.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Fabricating a robust interfacial layer on the lithium metal anode to isolate it from liquid electrolyte is vital to restrain the rapid degradation of a lithium metal battery. Here, we report that the solution-processed metal chloride perovskite thin film can be coated onto the lithium metal surface as a robust interfacial layer to shield the lithium metal from liquid electrolyte. Via phase analysis and density functional theory calculations, we demonstrate that the perovskite layer can allow fast lithium ion shuttle under a low energy barrier of 0.45 eV without the collapse of framework. Such perovskite modification can realize stable cycling of LiCoO₂|Li cells with an areal capacity of 2.8 mAh cm^-2 using thin lithium metal foil (50 μm) and limited electrolyte (20 μl mAh^-1) for over 100 cycles at 0.5 C. The metal chloride perovskite protection strategy could open a promising avenue for advanced lithium metal batteries.