Sodium Super Ionic Conductor-Type Hybrid Electrolytes for High Performance Lithium Metal Batteries

Po-Yu Sung; Mi Lu; Chien-Te Hsieh; Yasser Ashraf Gandomi; Siyong Gu; Wei-Ren Liu

doi:10.3390/membranes13020201

Sodium Super Ionic Conductor-Type Hybrid Electrolytes for High Performance Lithium Metal Batteries

Membranes (Basel). 2023 Feb 6;13(2):201. doi: 10.3390/membranes13020201.

Authors

Po-Yu Sung¹, Mi Lu², Chien-Te Hsieh^{1

3}, Yasser Ashraf Gandomi⁴, Siyong Gu², Wei-Ren Liu⁵

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, Yuan Ze University, Taoyuan 32003, Taiwan.
² Key Laboratory of Functional Materials and Applications of Fujian Province, Xiamen University of Technology, Xiamen 361024, China.
³ Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996, USA.
⁴ Department of Chemical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA.
⁵ Department of Chemical Engineering, Chung Yuan Christian University, Taoyuan 32023, Taiwan.

Abstract

Composite solid electrolytes (CSEs), composed of sodium superionic conductor (NASICON)-type Li_1+xAl_xTi_2-x(PO₄)₃ (LATP), poly (vinylidene fluoride-hexafluoro propylene) (PVDF-HFP), and lithium bis (trifluoromethanesulfonyl)imide (LiTFSI) salt, are designed and fabricated for lithium-metal batteries. The effects of the key design parameters (i.e., LiTFSI/LATP ratio, CSE thickness, and carbon content) on the specific capacity, coulombic efficiency, and cyclic stability were systematically investigated. The optimal CSE configuration, superior specific capacity (~160 mAh g^-1), low electrode polarization (~0.12 V), and remarkable cyclic stability (a capacity retention of 86.8%) were achieved during extended cycling (>200 cycles). In addition, with the optimal CSE structure, a high ionic conductivity (~2.83 × 10^-4 S cm^-1) was demonstrated at an ambient temperature. The CSE configuration demonstrated in this work can be employed for designing highly durable CSEs with enhanced ionic conductivity and significantly reduced interfacial electrolyte/electrode resistance.

Keywords: LATP powders; NASICON-type powders; composite solid electrolytes; lithium metal batteries; optimal setting.

Grants and funding

The authors acknowledge the support of the Ministry of Science and Technology in Taiwan through grant number: MOST 111-2221-E-155-004. Partially financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 21975212) is also appreciated.