What is the holy grail of lithium batteries?

January 15th,

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The research not only describes a new way to make solid state batteries with a lithium metal anode but also offers new understanding into the materials used for these potentially revolutionary batteries.

Researchers from the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) have developed a new lithium metal battery that can be charged and discharged at least 6,000 times &#; more than any other pouch battery cell &#; and can be recharged in a matter of minutes.

&#;Lithium metal anode batteries are considered the holy grail of batteries because they have ten times the capacity of commercial graphite anodes and could drastically increase the driving distance of electric vehicles,&#; said Xin Li, Associate Professor of Materials Science at SEAS and senior author of the paper. &#;Our research is an important step toward more practical solid state batteries for industrial and commercial applications.&#;

One of the biggest challenges in the design of these batteries is the formation of dendrites on the surface of the anode. These structures grow like roots into the electrolyte and pierce the barrier separating the anode and cathode, causing the battery to short or even catch fire.

These dendrites form when lithium ions move from the cathode to the anode during charging, attaching to the surface of the anode in a process called plating. Plating on the anode creates an uneven, non-homogeneous surface, like plaque on teeth, and allows dendrites to take root. When discharged, that plaque-like coating needs to be stripped from the anode and when plating is uneven, the stripping process can be slow and result in potholes that induce even more uneven plating in the next charge.

In , Li and his team offered one way to deal with dendrites by designing a multilayer battery that sandwiched different materials of varying stabilities between the anode and cathode. This multilayer, multi-material design prevented the penetration of lithium dendrites not by stopping them altogether, but rather by controlling and containing them.

In this new research, Li and his team stop dendrites from forming by using micron-sized silicon particles in the anode to constrict the lithiation reaction and facilitate homogeneous plating of a thick layer of lithium metal.

In this design, when lithium ions move from the cathode to the anode during charging, the lithiation reaction is constricted at the shallow surface and the ions attach to the surface of the silicon particle but don&#;t penetrate further. This is markedly different from the chemistry of liquid lithium ion batteries in which the lithium ions penetrate through deep lithiation reaction and ultimately destroy silicon particles in the anode.

But, in a solid state battery, the ions on the surface of the silicon are constricted and undergo the dynamic process of lithiation to form lithium metal plating around the core of silicon.

&#;In our design, lithium metal gets wrapped around the silicon particle, like a hard chocolate shell around a hazelnut core in a chocolate truffle,&#; said Li.

These coated particles create a homogenous surface across which the current density is evenly distributed, preventing the growth of dendrites. And, because plating and stripping can happen quickly on an even surface, the battery can recharge in only about 10 minutes.

The researchers built a postage stamp-sized pouch cell version of the battery, which is 10 to 20 times larger than the coin cell made in most university labs. The battery retained 80% of its capacity after 6,000 cycles, outperforming other pouch cell batteries on the market today. The technology has been licensed through Harvard Office of Technology Development to Adden Energy, a Harvard spinoff company cofounded by Li and three Harvard alumni. The company has scaled up the technology to build a smart -sized pouch cell battery.

Researchers, top carmakers, and EV battery manufacturers have been looking to unlock the next game-changing technology to make safer and more durable batteries that can be recharged in minutes&#;solid-state batteries.  

Many have claimed technological breakthroughs in recent months, and some of the world&#;s biggest legacy auto manufacturers are already drafting plans to begin mass production of solid-state batteries by the end of the decade.

The (re)search for the &#;holy grail&#; of batteries, as scientists have dubbed solid batteries, has seen many breakthrough announcements in recent months. Still, the next phase of implementing the technology looks more elusive, at least for now. No one has claimed yet to have found the secret to scaling up solid state battery manufacturing to put such batteries in electric vehicles and prove that the lab experiments of the super powerful, superfast chargeable, and super safe battery could work outside labs.

Solid Battery Breakthroughs

Solid state batteries, as the name suggests, use solid electrolyte, unlike the dominant lithium-ion batteries, which have a liquid electrolyte with lithium salts. The solid battery offers much higher energy density&#;they are packing more energy per volume or weight.

Solid-state batteries also enable faster charging and can withstand wider temperature ranges than lithium-ion batteries. And last but not least, solid batteries can be made of cheaper materials.

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However, these batteries face their own set of hurdles to mass production. In the design stage, one of the biggest challenges has been how to prevent the formation of dendrites, needle-like crystals or &#;metal whiskers&#; that develop on the anode of the battery during charging. These dendrites can create a short circuit and reduce the safety and lifespan of a solid-state battery. Related: Two Countries That Could Break Putin's Gas Grip On Europe

Researchers from the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) believe they may have overcome the dendrites problem in solid batteries.

Earlier this year, the scientists said they had developed a new lithium metal battery that can be charged and discharged at least 6,000 times &#; more than any other pouch battery cell &#; and can be recharged in a matter of minutes.

In the new research, published in Nature Materials in January, the team led by Xin Li, Associate Professor of Materials Science at SEAS and senior author of the paper, were able to stop dendrites from forming. They have used micron-sized silicon particles in the anode to constrict the reaction and facilitate homogeneous plating of a thick layer of lithium metal.

In the novel design, when lithium ions move during charging, the reaction is constricted at the shallow surface, and the ions attach to the surface of the silicon particle but don&#;t penetrate further, the team said.

&#;In our design, lithium metal gets wrapped around the silicon particle, like a hard chocolate shell around a hazelnut core in a chocolate truffle,&#; Li says.

&#;Lithium metal anode batteries are considered the holy grail of batteries because they have ten times the capacity of commercial graphite anodes and could drastically increase the driving distance of electric vehicles,&#; the scientist noted.

The researchers built a postage stamp-sized pouch cell version of the battery, which was found to retain 80% of its capacity after 6,000 cycles, outperforming other pouch cell batteries on the market today, they say.

In separate research, scientists at the University of Liverpool in the UK have synthesized a solid material that rapidly conducts lithium ions and demonstrated it in a battery cell. According to the researchers who published their paper in the journal Science, the new material, which consists of non-toxic earth-abundant elements, has high enough lithium-ion conductivity to replace the liquid electrolytes in current lithium-ion battery technology, improving safety and energy capacity.

Race to Launch Mass Production

While scientists are working on the &#;holy grail&#; design, battery manufacturers and automakers, both in China and the West, are advancing their own solid battery projects.

In China, a government-led initiative, China All-Solid-State Battery Collaborative Innovation Platform (CASIP), has grouped together EV battery manufacturer CATL, electric vehicle maker BYD, and academia to work on revolutionizing the EV market with solid batteries, business publication Nikkei Asia reported last month.  

In Japan, Toyota said last year that recent technological advancements by Toyota have overcome the challenge of shorter battery life of solid batteries, and &#;the company has switched its focus to putting solid-state batteries into mass production.&#; Toyota&#;s goal is to have a solid-state battery ready for commercial use by -.

&#;We will be rolling out our electric vehicles with solid-state batteries in a couple of years from now,&#; Vikram Gulati, the India head of Toyota Kirloskar Motor, said earlier this year, as quoted by Reuters.

PowerCo, the battery company of the Volkswagen Group, said earlier this year that the solid-state cell of U.S. company QuantumScape has significantly exceeded the requirements in the A-sample test and successfully completed more than 1,000 charging cycles.

&#;The final result of this development could be a battery cell that enables long ranges, can be charged super-quickly and practically does not age,&#; PowerCo chief executive Frank Blome said.

The next step on the way to series production is now to perfect and scale the manufacturing processes, Volkswagen noted.  

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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