Next Generation High-Energy Battery

 

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​INL, as one of partners in the Department of Energy (DOE)-sponsored Battery500 consortium, is developing the next-generation battery technologies with higher energy, lighter weight, and long cycle life to power future electric vehicles. The overarching goal of the Battery500 consortium is to build a battery with a specific energy of 500 watt-hours per kilogram, which is more than twice the specific energy of today's typical electric-vehicle (EV) battery. Li metal-based batteries, such as Li-sulfur and high-nickel-content nickel-manganese-cobalt (NMC) batteries hold great potential due to their high specific energy. However, they suffer from short cycle life. INL addresses these issues by building stable solid electrolyte interlayer (SEI) on anode surfaces, rationally designing cells, optimizing use conditions, and increasing utilization of cathode materials as well as improving electrode kinetics. INL  has established strong expertise and capability in discovering and developing novel technologies, and electrode architecture design and interfacial engineering for Li-S and Li-NMC batteries. These technologies—and associated electrode active-material and architecture characterizations using physicochemical and electrochemical techniques—are aiding the Battery500 Consortium to achieve project goals. Our latest publications on this topic can be found below.

INL demonstrated a bi-layer SEI structure, constructed of an interconnected, tortuous, porous LiF-rich layer in contact with lithium and a dense in-situ formed inorganic-rich layer on top of the porous structure, showing enhanced anode stability. The resulting artificial SEI was a LiF-rich, porous structure, where an increased number of Li/LiF interfaces for lithium nucleation are made available, thus reducing local volume fluctuations, improving the flexibility of the SEI, as well as decreasing anode resistance because of faster Li+ diffusion along such interface. The interconnected and tortuous pores improve the Li+ flux distribution and mechanically suppresses dendrite growth on the Li-metal surface. The Li- metal with the bi-layer SEI showed extended cyclability in symmetric cells and pouch cells using both sulfur and LFP cathodes. This rational design of SEI opens the new opportunity to improve the stability of the Li-metal anode and unlocks a plausible route for high-energy metal-based batteries, such as Li, Na and K metals. Schematic showing the initial structure and failure mechanism for (top) Li-metal and (middle) dense LiF artificial SEI, as well as (bottom) the plating mechanism fora bi-layer dense/porous artificial SEI.​

INL and the University of California at San Diego team correlate the crystallinity of Li nuclei with subsequent growth of the nanostructure and morphology and provide strategies to control and shape the mesostructure of Li metal to achieve performance in rechargeable Li batteries. For more, please visit the article Glassy Li metal anode for high-performance rechargeable Li batteries.

Understanding lithium−sulfur battery performance with lean electrolytes is highly desirable. INL researchers developed methods to synthesize a nanoporous carbon host, dec​orated with Ni₃S₂@Ni particles. Such a cathode delivers enhanced specific capacities with extended cycling life in lean electrolytes due to the dual functions of the Ni₃S₂ shell, which can both facilitate reaction kinetics and promote electrolyte wetting. This work highlights a strategy to rationally design cathodes for high-energy lithium−sulfur batteries.

Publications

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2024

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• ​ Calendar life of lithium metal batteries: Accelerated aging and failure analysis​ ​

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2023

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• ​ Localized high-concentration electrolytes get more localized through micelle-like structures​ ​

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2022

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• ​ Perspective—Lithium Metal Nucleation and Growth on Conductive Substrates: A Multi-Scale Understanding from Atomistic, Nano-, Meso-, to Micro-Scales​ ​
• ​ Operando Synchrotron Studies of Inhomogeneity during Anode-Free Plating of Li Metal in Pouch Cell Batteries​ ​
• Interfaces in all solid state Li-metal batteries: A review on instabilities, stabilization strategies, and scalability ​

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2021

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• Interfacial-engineering-enabled practical low-temperature sodium metal battery​ ​
• Unlocking Failure Mechanisms and Improvement of Practical Li–S Pouch Cells through In Operando Pressure Study​ ​
• Formation of Surface Impurities on Lithium–Nickel–Manganese–Cobalt Oxides in the Presence of CO2 and H2O​ ​
• A closed-host bi-layer dense/porous solid electrolyte interphase for enhanced lithium-metal anode stability​ ​
• High-Energy Lateral Mapping (HELM) Studies of Inhomogeneity and Failure Mechanisms in NMC622/Li Pouch Cells​​ ​

​2020​

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• Fast Diagnosis of Failure Mechanisms and Lifetime Prediction of LI Metal Batteries​​ ​
• ​​​ ​ Correlation of electrochemical and mechanical responses: Differential analysis of rechargeable lithium metal cells​​
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• ​ Dual Functional Ni3S2@Ni Core–Shell Nanoparticles Decorating Nanoporous Carbon as Cathode Scaffolds for Lithium–Sulfur Battery with Lean Electrolytes​​​ ​
• A non-aqueous sodium hexafluorophosphate-based electrolyte degradation study: Formation and mitigation of hydrofluoric acid​​​ ​
• Pressure Evolution in Constrained Rechargeable Lithium-metal Pouch Cells​​​ ​

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​2019​

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• Critical Parameters for Evaluating Coin Cells and Pouch Cells of Rechargeable Li-Metal Batteries​ ​
• ​ Pathways for practical high-energy long-cycling lithium metal batteries
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• Implications of Local Current Density Variations on Lithium Plating Affected by Cathode Particle Size​​​ ​
• Good Practices for Safe Handling of Lithium Metal Anode and High Energy Rechargeable Lithium Metal Batteries ​
• Benchmarking Conductivity Predictions of the Advanced Electrolyte Model (AEM) for Aqueous Systems ​

​2018​

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• Predicting Calendar Aging in Lithium Metal Secondary Batteries: The Impacts of Solid Electrolyte Interphase Composition and Stability​ ​
• ​ Transport modeling and mapping of pulsed reactor dynamics near and beyond the onset of viscid flow​
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• Impacts of lean electrolyte on cycle life for rechargeable Li metal batteries ​

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