Hydrogen Bonding Induced Confinement Effect between Ultrafine Nanowires and Polymer Chains for Low-Energy-Barrier Ion Transport in Composite Electrolytes

Achieving low-energy-barrier lithium ion transport isa fundamentalissue for composite solid-state electrolytes (CSEs) in all-solid-statelithium metal batteries (ASSLMBs). In this work, a hydrogen bondinginduced confinement strategy was proposed to construct confined templatechannels for low-energy-barrier lithium ion continuous transport.Specifically, the ultrafine boehmite nanowires (BNWs) with 3.7 nmdiameter were synthesized and superiorly dispersed in a polymer matrixto form a flexible CSE. The ultrafine BNWs with large specific surfaceareas and abundant oxygen vacancies assist the dissociation of lithiumsalts and confine the conformation of polymer chain segments by hydrogenbonding between the BNWs and the polymer matrix, thus forming a polymer/ultrafinenanowire intertwined structure as template channels for dissociatedlithium ions continuous transport. As a result, the as-prepared electrolytesdisplayed a satisfactory ionic conductivity of 0.714 mS cm(-1) and low energy barrier (16.30 kJ mol(-1)), and theassembled ASSLMB delivered excellent specific capacity retention (92.8%)after 500 cycles. This work demonstrates a promising way to designCSEs with high ionic conductivity for high-performance ASSLMBs.

Automated summary

A confinement strategy based on hydrogen bonding was proposed to achieve low-energy-barrier lithium ion transport in composite solid-state electrolytes for all-solid-state lithium metal batteries. The use of ultrafine boehmite nanowires in a polymer matrix resulted in the formation of template channels for continuous transport of dissociated lithium ions. The electrolytes exhibited high ionic conductivity, low energy barrier, and excellent specific capacity retention after cycling.