Blade-Coatable Hexagonal Boron Nitride Ionogel Electrolytes for Scalable Production of Lithium Metal Batteries

Solid-state electrolytes have attracted significant attentionfor rechargeable lithium-ion batteries due to their potential to enablehigher energy density technologies and improve cell safety by removingvolatile liquid electrolytes. However, existing solid-state electrolytematerials lack sufficient electrochemical performance or requireexpensive and time-consuming processing methods that have preventedtheir wide-scale adoption. Here, a blade-coatable hexagonal boronnitride ionogel electrolyte is introduced that exhibits high roomtemperature ionic conductivity (>1 mS cm-1), is stable against lithiummetal anodes, and can be applied over a wide area in a thin (<40 mu m)and crack-freefilm. Furthermore, this blade-coatable slurry has a tunableviscosity to enable its use in existing battery manufacturing infra-structure. The resulting blade-coated hBN ionogel electrolyte isemployed in a lithium metal battery with a LiFePO4cathode, exhibiting superlative rate capability at room temperaturewith a 78% capacity retention after 500 cycles at a rate of 1C.

Automated summary

This study introduces a blade-coatable hexagonal boron nitride ionogel electrolyte with high ionic conductivity and stability, enabling excellent rate performance in lithium metal batteries.