Lithium Metal Protection by a Cross-Linked Polymer Ionic Liquid and Its Application in Lithium Battery

BOBNAR, JERNEJ; VISINTIN, ARNALDO; DOMINKO, ROBERT; BOBNAR, JERNEJ; VISINTIN, ARNALDO; DOMINKO, ROBERT; CALDERÓN, C. ANDREA; BARRACO, DANIEL E.; FANTINI, SÉBASTIEN; CALDERÓN, C. ANDREA; BARRACO, DANIEL E.; FANTINI, SÉBASTIEN; VIZINTIN, ALEN; LEIVA, EZEQUIEL P.M.; FISCHER, FLORENT; VIZINTIN, ALEN; LEIVA, EZEQUIEL P.M.; FISCHER, FLORENT

ACS Applied Energy Materials

ACS

Año: 2020 vol. 3 p. 2020 - 2027

2574-0962

Lithium (Li) metal has been considered as an important anode candidate to reach morepowerful energy storage devices with higher gravimetric and volumetric capacities.Nevertheless, the growth of high surface area lithium (HSAL) and dendrites during thestripping / deposition of Li causes safety concern and low cycle life of Li metal batteries.Here we report the obtained results for protection of metallic lithium surface by using agel polymer ionic liquid cross-linked by activation with UV radiation (UV-PIL). The UVPILprotects Li against a constant degradation caused by the formation of unstablelithium metal-electrolyte interphase and cell dry out due to continuous electrolyteconsumption. We observed retarded growth of dendrites when lithium metal is protectedwith UV-PIL and due to the lower ionic conductivity of UV-PIL some differences of masstransport are present compared to carbonate based liquid electrolyte. Nevertheless, theUV-PIL@Li negative electrode was successfully applied in a Li-ion battery with lithiumiron phosphate (LFP) positive electrode, showing similar behavior compared to the bareLi surface.