New lithium-based solid electrolyte delivers dry air stability, efficient transport and high compatibility toward metallic lithium

A team of researchers from the US and Canada have developed a new lithium-based solid-state electrolyte (SSE) material (Li₉N₂Cl₃) that demonstrates excellent lithium compatibility and atmospheric stability and that enables high–areal capacity, long-lasting all–solid-state lithium metal batteries. An open-access paper on the work is published in Science Advances.

The Li₉N₂Cl₃ facilitates efficient lithium-ion transport due to its disordered lattice structure and presence of vacancies. Notably, it resists dendrite formation at 10 mA/cm² and 10 mAh/cm² due to its intrinsic lithium metal stability. Furthermore, it exhibits robust dry-air stability.

Incorporating this SSE in Ni-rich LiNi_0.83Co_0.11Mn_0.06O₂ cathode-based all–solid-state batteries, we achieve substantial cycling stability (90.35% capacity retention over 1500 cycles at 0.5 C) and high areal capacity (4.8 mAh/cm² in pouch cells). These findings pave the way for lithium metal batteries to meet electric vehicle performance demands.

—Li et al.

Calculated crystal structure of vacancy-rich Li₉N₂Cl₃, Li⁺ (cyan), N³⁻ (yellow), and Cl⁻ (green). Li et al.

Resources

• Weihan Li et al. (2023) “Lithium-compatible and air-stable vacancy-rich Li₉N₂Cl₃ for high–areal capacity, long-cycling all–solid-state lithium metal batteries.” Sci. Adv. 9 doi: 10.1126/sciadv.adh4626