Improving cyclability of Li metal batteries at elevated temperatures and its origin revealed by cryo-electron microscopy

Jiangyan Wang; William Huang; Allen Pei; Yuzhang Li; Feifei Shi; Xiaoyun Yu; Yi Cui

doi:10.1038/s41560-019-0413-3

Improving cyclability of Li metal batteries at elevated temperatures and its origin revealed by cryo-electron microscopy

Jiangyan Wang, William Huang, Allen Pei, Yuzhang Li, Feifei Shi, Xiaoyun Yu, Yi Cui

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

395 Scopus citations

Abstract

Operations of lithium-ion batteries have long been limited to a narrow temperature range close to room temperature. At elevated temperatures, cycling degradation speeds up due to enhanced side reactions, especially when high-reactivity lithium metal is used as the anode. Here, we demonstrate enhanced performance in lithium metal batteries operated at elevated temperatures. In an ether-based electrolyte at 60 °C, an average Coulombic efficiency of 99.3% is obtained and more than 300 stable cycles are realized, but, at 20 °C, the Coulombic efficiency drops dramatically within 75 cycles, corresponding to an average Coulombic efficiency of 90.2%. Cryo-electron microscopy reveals a drastically different solid electrolyte interface nanostructure emerging at 60 °C, which maintains mechanical stability, inhibits continuous side reactions and guarantees good cycling stability and low electrochemical impedance. Furthermore, larger lithium particles grown at the elevated temperature reduce the electrolyte/electrode interfacial area, which decreases the per-cycle lithium loss and enables higher Coulombic efficiencies.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	664-670
Number of pages	7
Journal	NATURE ENERGY
Volume	4
Issue number	8
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41560-019-0413-3
State	Published - Jul 1 2019
Externally published	Yes

Bibliographical note

KAUST Repository Item: Exported on 2022-06-07
Acknowledgements: Y.C. acknowledges support from the Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Office of Vehicle Technologies, Battery Materials Research (BMR) Program and Battery 500 Consortium of the US Department of Energy, Stanford Global Climate and Energy Projects (GCEP), the Office of Naval Research, the Joint Center for Energy Storage Research (JCESR) and a KAUST Investigator Award. A.P. acknowledges support from the National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship and the Stanford Graduate Fellowship. Part of this work was performed at the Stanford Nano Shared Facilities (SNSF), supported by the National Science Foundation under award ECCS-1542152.
This publication acknowledges KAUST support, but has no KAUST affiliated authors.

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Access to Document

10.1038/s41560-019-0413-3

Cite this

@article{60fd4a793865439b92d5f2021cd44349,

title = "Improving cyclability of Li metal batteries at elevated temperatures and its origin revealed by cryo-electron microscopy",

abstract = "Operations of lithium-ion batteries have long been limited to a narrow temperature range close to room temperature. At elevated temperatures, cycling degradation speeds up due to enhanced side reactions, especially when high-reactivity lithium metal is used as the anode. Here, we demonstrate enhanced performance in lithium metal batteries operated at elevated temperatures. In an ether-based electrolyte at 60 °C, an average Coulombic efficiency of 99.3% is obtained and more than 300 stable cycles are realized, but, at 20 °C, the Coulombic efficiency drops dramatically within 75 cycles, corresponding to an average Coulombic efficiency of 90.2%. Cryo-electron microscopy reveals a drastically different solid electrolyte interface nanostructure emerging at 60 °C, which maintains mechanical stability, inhibits continuous side reactions and guarantees good cycling stability and low electrochemical impedance. Furthermore, larger lithium particles grown at the elevated temperature reduce the electrolyte/electrode interfacial area, which decreases the per-cycle lithium loss and enables higher Coulombic efficiencies.",

author = "Jiangyan Wang and William Huang and Allen Pei and Yuzhang Li and Feifei Shi and Xiaoyun Yu and Yi Cui",

note = "KAUST Repository Item: Exported on 2022-06-07 Acknowledgements: Y.C. acknowledges support from the Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Office of Vehicle Technologies, Battery Materials Research (BMR) Program and Battery 500 Consortium of the US Department of Energy, Stanford Global Climate and Energy Projects (GCEP), the Office of Naval Research, the Joint Center for Energy Storage Research (JCESR) and a KAUST Investigator Award. A.P. acknowledges support from the National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship and the Stanford Graduate Fellowship. Part of this work was performed at the Stanford Nano Shared Facilities (SNSF), supported by the National Science Foundation under award ECCS-1542152. This publication acknowledges KAUST support, but has no KAUST affiliated authors.",

year = "2019",

month = jul,

day = "1",

doi = "10.1038/s41560-019-0413-3",

language = "English (US)",

volume = "4",

pages = "664--670",

journal = "NATURE ENERGY",

issn = "2058-7546",

publisher = "Nature Publishing Group",

number = "8",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - Improving cyclability of Li metal batteries at elevated temperatures and its origin revealed by cryo-electron microscopy

AU - Wang, Jiangyan

AU - Huang, William

AU - Pei, Allen

AU - Li, Yuzhang

AU - Shi, Feifei

AU - Yu, Xiaoyun

AU - Cui, Yi

N1 - KAUST Repository Item: Exported on 2022-06-07 Acknowledgements: Y.C. acknowledges support from the Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Office of Vehicle Technologies, Battery Materials Research (BMR) Program and Battery 500 Consortium of the US Department of Energy, Stanford Global Climate and Energy Projects (GCEP), the Office of Naval Research, the Joint Center for Energy Storage Research (JCESR) and a KAUST Investigator Award. A.P. acknowledges support from the National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship and the Stanford Graduate Fellowship. Part of this work was performed at the Stanford Nano Shared Facilities (SNSF), supported by the National Science Foundation under award ECCS-1542152. This publication acknowledges KAUST support, but has no KAUST affiliated authors.

PY - 2019/7/1

Y1 - 2019/7/1

N2 - Operations of lithium-ion batteries have long been limited to a narrow temperature range close to room temperature. At elevated temperatures, cycling degradation speeds up due to enhanced side reactions, especially when high-reactivity lithium metal is used as the anode. Here, we demonstrate enhanced performance in lithium metal batteries operated at elevated temperatures. In an ether-based electrolyte at 60 °C, an average Coulombic efficiency of 99.3% is obtained and more than 300 stable cycles are realized, but, at 20 °C, the Coulombic efficiency drops dramatically within 75 cycles, corresponding to an average Coulombic efficiency of 90.2%. Cryo-electron microscopy reveals a drastically different solid electrolyte interface nanostructure emerging at 60 °C, which maintains mechanical stability, inhibits continuous side reactions and guarantees good cycling stability and low electrochemical impedance. Furthermore, larger lithium particles grown at the elevated temperature reduce the electrolyte/electrode interfacial area, which decreases the per-cycle lithium loss and enables higher Coulombic efficiencies.

AB - Operations of lithium-ion batteries have long been limited to a narrow temperature range close to room temperature. At elevated temperatures, cycling degradation speeds up due to enhanced side reactions, especially when high-reactivity lithium metal is used as the anode. Here, we demonstrate enhanced performance in lithium metal batteries operated at elevated temperatures. In an ether-based electrolyte at 60 °C, an average Coulombic efficiency of 99.3% is obtained and more than 300 stable cycles are realized, but, at 20 °C, the Coulombic efficiency drops dramatically within 75 cycles, corresponding to an average Coulombic efficiency of 90.2%. Cryo-electron microscopy reveals a drastically different solid electrolyte interface nanostructure emerging at 60 °C, which maintains mechanical stability, inhibits continuous side reactions and guarantees good cycling stability and low electrochemical impedance. Furthermore, larger lithium particles grown at the elevated temperature reduce the electrolyte/electrode interfacial area, which decreases the per-cycle lithium loss and enables higher Coulombic efficiencies.

UR - http://hdl.handle.net/10754/678689

UR - http://www.nature.com/articles/s41560-019-0413-3

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85068539444&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1038/s41560-019-0413-3

DO - 10.1038/s41560-019-0413-3

M3 - Article

SN - 2058-7546

VL - 4

SP - 664

EP - 670

JO - NATURE ENERGY

JF - NATURE ENERGY

IS - 8

ER -

Improving cyclability of Li metal batteries at elevated temperatures and its origin revealed by cryo-electron microscopy

Abstract

Bibliographical note

UN SDGs

Access to Document

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Cite this