Ulsan University of Science and Technology (UNIST) recently invented a new technology in a study that is expected to greatly improve the performance of lithium metal batteries. This high-performance battery is expected to develop into the next generation of commercial rechargeable batteries. The researchers observed the performance of the battery charge and discharge cycle through experiments, and verified that this technology can improve battery performance.
The research team led by Professor Hyun-Wook Lee of the School of Energy and Chemical Engineering at Ulsan University of Science and Technology in Korea and the Singapore Science and Technology Research Institute (A * Star) has achieved breakthrough results.
Lithium metal battery is a rechargeable battery with lithium as the anode. Among many different cathode materials, the driving voltage of lithium metal is the lowest, and the capacity of the battery is about 10 times that of the conventional graphite anode battery. Therefore, lithium metal has received widespread attention as a potential next-generation anode material, and it can be used in electric vehicles and large-scale energy storage systems.
Although lithium metal anodes are ideal for high energy density batteries, they are difficult to use in commercial batteries. The main reason is that lithium metal tends to grow into a dendritic structure during the continuous charging and discharging of the battery, which may lead to poor battery performance. Because the dendritic structure of the lithium metal surface layer can penetrate the battery separator and trigger an internal short circuit.
In the study, the research team suppressed the dendrite growth of lithium metal anodes by coating a lithium silicide (LixSi) layer on the surface of the lithium foil. The experimental results show that the modified battery has excellent electrochemical performance in terms of charge and discharge speed and cycle stability.
They also performed in-situ optical microscopy studies on electrochemical deposition on LixSi-modified lithium electrodes and bare lithium electrodes. Traditional lithium metal anodes tend to form dendritic structures, which can penetrate the battery separator and trigger an internal short circuit. However, LixSi modified lithium anodes have more uniform lithium dissolution and deposition on the anodes than bare lithium electrodes.
Professor Li said, "We have directly observed the electrochemical behavior, volume expansion, and lithium dendrite growth of lithium metal anodes in our research. If this technology is applied to the manufacture of actual batteries, it will help the commercialization of lithium metal batteries. . "
This research was supported by the Ministry of Education of Korea and by the Korea National Research Foundation's Basic Science Research Project.