Ceramic Li1.3Al0.3Ti1.7(PO4)3 (LATP) with high ionic conductivity and stability in ambient atmosphere is considered to be potent as a solid-state electrolyte of solid-state lithium metal batteries (SSLMBs), but its huge interfacial impedance with electrodes and the unwanted Ti4+-mediated reduction reaction caused by the lithium (Li) metal anode greatly limit its application in LMBs. Herein, a composite polymer electrolyte (CPET) was integrated by in situ gelation of dual-permeable 1, 3-dioxolane (DOL) in the tandem framework composed of the commercial cellulose membrane TF4030 and a porous three-dimensional (3D) skeleton-structured LATP. The in situ gelled DOL anchored in the tandem framework ensured nice interfacial contact between the as-prepared CPET and electrodes. The introduction of the porous 3D LATP endowed CPET the increased lithium-ion migration number (tLi+) of 0.70, a wide electrochemical stability window (ESW) of 4.86 V, and a high ionic conductivity of 1.16 × 10-4 S cm-1 at room temperature (RT). Meanwhile, the side reaction of the LATP/Li metal was adequately restrained by inserting TF4030 between the porous LATP and Li anode. Profiting from the superb interfacial stability and the enhanced ionic transport capacity of CPET, Li/Li batteries based on the optimal CPET (CPET2) cycled over 2000 h at 20∼30 °C smoothly. Moreover, solid-state LiFePO4 (LFP)/Li with CPET2 exhibited excellent electrochemical performance with a capacity retention ratio of 72.2% after 400 cycles at 0.5C. This work offers an integrated strategy to guide the fabrication of a highly conductive solid electrolyte and a stable interface design for high-performance SSLMBs.
Keywords: 1,3-dioxolane gel; Interfacial stability; LATP-based porous tandem framework; cycling performance; solid-state lithium metal batteries.