A New Class of Lithium Conductive Polymers for Solid State Lithium Metal Batteries at Room Temperature

Abstract

Lithium-ion batteries (LIBs), among various secondary battery technologies, have received a significant amount of attention in the last decades, becoming the most successful commercial batteries. Extensively used in portable electronics, electric vehicles, and energy storage stations, LIBs meet many challenges, such as safety problems, low energy densities and so on, which drives much research toward developing the next generation of battery technology. Solid-state batteries emerge as one of the most potential alternatives for mainstream LIBs. Polymer-based solid-state electrolytes (SSEs) have been widely studied due to their softness and flexibility, relieving interface problems between electrodes and separators, especially compared with inorganic solid electrolytes. However, their limitations, such as limited Li+ conductivity or narrow electrochemical windows (< 4 V), restrict their potential applications. In this presentation, a new type of polymer (PG23), developed by Piersica Inc. (www.piersica.com) were applied as excellent binder to organic electrolyte based LIBs, and also to all solid state LIBs. Solid state electrolyte (SSEs) based on the polymer PG23 exhibits impressive conductivity (0.1 mS/cm) at room temperature and extremely high oxidized stability (approx. 4.9 V). When the SSEs was applied to both solid cathode (NMC622 as active material) and SSEs, combined with Li metal as anode, the LIBs demonstrated excellent capacity and cycling stability operating at room temperature. This polymer from Piersica Inc. exhibits considerable promise for the development and enhancement of solid-state batteries.