A Washington State University research team has developed a lithium-metal battery that overcomes traditional concerns of safety by eliminating dendritic growth.
The battery uses two additives in the electrolyte that form a dense, conductive and robust protective layer around the lithium anode and selenium disulphide in a porous carbon structure for its cathode.
The researchers say the lithium metal surface was enough to suppress the growth of dendrites while allowing good cycling stability and, importantly, the researchers believe their technology is scalable and cost-effective.
When tested at typical current densities, the protected lithium metal anode was able to re-charge 500 times and retained high efficiency, report the team.
Research was led by Min-Kyu Song, assistant professor in the WSU School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering.
The research was reported in the journal, Nano Energy.
Lithium metal is considered the “dream material” for batteries because of its high energy density, but researchers have never been able to make them work safely.
“If we can directly use lithium metal, we can improve the energy density of batteries dramatically,” Song said.
“Such a unique protective layer led to little morphological changes of the lithium anode over cycling and effectively mitigated the growth of lithium dendrites and unwanted side reactions,” he said.
“If commercialised, this novel formulation has real potential. Compared to solid-state batteries which are still years away, you don’t have to change the manufacturing procedures, and this would be applicable to real industry much sooner, opening up a promising route toward the development of high-energy lithium metal batteries with a long cycle life.”
The researchers are continuing to work on the battery, developing a separator that will further protect the battery materials from deterioration and enhance safety without compromising performance.
Image: (from left) graduate student Younghwan Cha, professor Min-Kyu Song and graduate students Panpan Dong and Xiahui Zhang