Behavior of Secondary Lithium and Aluminum‐Lithium Electrodes in Propylene Carbonate

Abstract

The improvement of the lithium cycling efficiency obtained by substituting an aluminum substrate for a lithium substrate is explained by means of morphological and kinetic studies of the electrodes in the molar solution. SEM observations show that the insertion rate of the lithium deposit into aluminum can be sufficiently high so as to avoid dendritic growth; ESCA analysis reveals that propylene carbonate leads to a chemical formation of a polymeric membrane on the electrodes, which is less important on the aluminum than on the lithium substrate. Electrochemical impedance measurements associated with polarization curve data point out that most of the surface is active, giving rise to an exchange current density of about 17 mA/cm2; these studies also demonstrate that diffusion processes in the passivating layer and in the bulk of the electrode are responsible for the limited lithium cycling performances with the aluminum substrate.