Development of membranes and a study of their interfaces for rechargeable lithium-air battery

This paper describes an investigation with an objective to screen and select high performance membrane materials for a working, rechargeable lithium-air battery. Membrane laminates comprising glass-ceramic (GC) and polymer-ceramic (PC) membranes were assembled, evaluated and analyzed. A superionic conducting GC membrane with a chemical composition of Li(1+x)Al(x)Ge(2-x)(PO(4))(3) (x = 0.5) was used. Polymer membranes comprising of PC(BN), PC(AlN), PC(Si(3)N(4)) and PC(Li(2)O) electrochemically coupled the GC membrane with the lithium anode. The cell and membrane laminates were characterized by determining cell conductivity, open circuit voltage and carrier concentration and its mobility. The measurements identified Li(2)O and BN as suitable dopants in polymer matrix which catalyzed anodic charge transfer reaction, formed stable SEI layer and provided high lithium ion conductivity. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.