Smart Construction of an Intimate Lithium | Garnet Interface for All-Solid-State Batteries by Tuning the Tension of Molten Lithium

All-solid-state lithium batteries (ASSBs) have the potential to trigger a battery revolution for electric vehicles due to their advantages in safety and energy density. Screening of various possible solid electrolytes for ASSBs has revealed that garnet electrolytes are promising due to their high ionic conductivity and superior (electro)chemical stabilities. However, a major challenge of garnet electrolytes is poor contact with Li-metal anodes, resulting in an extremely large interfacial impedance and severe Li dendrite propagation. Herein, an innovative surface tension modification method is proposed to create an intimate Li | garnet interface by tuning molten Li with a trace amount of Si3N4 (1 wt%). The resultant Li-Si-N melt can not only convert the Li | garnet interface from point-to-point contact to consecutive face-to-face contact but also homogenize the electric-field distribution during the Li stripping/depositing process, thereby significantly decreasing its interfacial impedance (1 omega cm(2) at 25 degrees C) and improving its cycle stability (1000 h at 0.4 mA cm(-2)) and critical current density (1.8 mA cm(-2)). Specifically, the all-solid-state full cell paired with a LiFePO4 cathode delivered a high capacity of 145 mAh g(-1) at 2 C and maintained 97% of the initial capacity after 100 cycles at 1 C.

Automated summary

Garnet electrolytes show great promise in all-solid-state lithium batteries, but poor contact with Li-metal anodes remains a major challenge.