Publication date: 10th April 2024
The stability of the metal – solid electrolyte interface during metal stripping and plating under wide-ranging, dynamic conditions is central to the performance of all-solid-state and hybrid rechargeable batteries utilizing a metal anode. Successful design of this anode-electrolyte subassembly would enable adoption of a wide variety of cathodes and cell chemistries. Previous work [1,2] in our group showed that dendrite propagation through a solid electrolyte couples electrochemistry to fracture, and is therefore responsive to imposed stress. Indeed, the growth of a metal dendrite can be “steered” by applied stress, including being deflected to avert shorting or, rather counterintuitively, being driven towards the opposing electrode if compressive stack pressure is applied, promoting short-circuit failure [2]. In this talk, results will be presented that shed light on the mechanism by which metal dendrites grow under electrochemical bias, obtained using a newly developed birefringence microscopy technique [3] to quantitatively map the stress field associated with propagating dendrites. These operando experiments combined with cryogenic scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) characterization of the dendrite tip allow us to distinguish the separate roles of electrochemistry and mechanics associated with dendrite growth in solid electrolytes.
Previous work [4,5] has also shown that greater stability, as measured by the critical current density (CCD) that can be sustained without closed-circuit failure, and the capacity (thickness) of metal that can be electrodeposited without open circuit failure, are both correlated with mechanically softer metal electrodes (e.g., Li vs Na vs K, or use of solid-liquid two-phase alloys). Pursuing this strategy, we show that deliberate incorporation of an immiscible soft phase into Li metal composite electrodes with suitable microstructures can both increase CCD and narrows its cell-to-cell variation, increasing reliability. Prospects for extending this approach to the cathode-solid electrolyte subassembly will also be discussed.
Funding is gratefully acknowledged from Mechano-Chemical Understanding of Solid Ion Conductors, an Energy Frontier Research Center funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Science, contract DE-SC0023438C, and from Morphogenic Interfaces, Defense Advanced Research Project Agency, contract HR00112220032. B.W.S. acknowledges funding from NSF (DMR-2124775). D.F acknowledges funding from the Department of Defense National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship.
nanoGe is a prestigious brand of successful science conferences that are developed along the year in different areas of the world since 2009. Our worldwide conferences cover cutting-edge materials topics like perovskite solar cells, photovoltaics, optoelectronics, solar fuel conversion, surface science, catalysis and two-dimensional materials, among many others.
Previously nanoGe Spring Meeting (NSM) and nanoGe Fall Meeting (NFM), MATSUS is a multiple symposia conference focused on a broad set of topics of advanced materials preparation, their fundamental properties, and their applications, in fields such as renewable energy, photovoltaics, lighting, semiconductor quantum dots, 2-D materials synthesis, charge carriers dynamics, microscopy and spectroscopy semiconductors fundamentals, etc.
International Conference on Hybrid and Organic Photovoltaics
International Conference on Hybrid and Organic Photovoltaics (HOPV) is celebrated yearly in May. The main topics are the development, function and modeling of materials and devices for hybrid and organic solar cells. The field is now dominated by perovskite solar cells but also other hybrid technologies, as organic solar cells, quantum dot solar cells, and dye-sensitized solar cells and their integration into devices for photoelectrochemical solar fuel production.
Asia-Pacific International Conference on Perovskite, Organic Photovoltaics and Optoelectronics
The main topics of the Asia-Pacific International Conference on Perovskite, Organic Photovoltaics and Optoelectronics (IPEROP) are discussed every year in Asia-Pacific for gathering the recent advances in the fields of material preparation, modeling and fabrication of perovskite and hybrid and organic materials. Photovoltaic devices are analyzed from fundamental physics and materials properties to a broad set of applications. The conference also covers the developments of perovskite optoelectronics, including light-emitting diodes, lasers, optical devices, nanophotonics, nonlinear optical properties, colloidal nanostructures, photophysics and light-matter coupling.
The International Conference on Perovskite Thin Film Photovoltaics Perovskite Photonics and Optoelectronics (NIPHO) is the best place to hear the latest developments in perovskite solar cells as well as on recent advances in the fields of perovskite light-emitting diodes, lasers, optical devices, nanophotonics, nonlinear optical properties, colloidal nanostructures, photophysics and light-matter coupling.