Improving Cell Resistance and Cycle Life with Solvate/Thiophosphate Hybrid Electrolytes in Lithium Batteries

Abstract

Solid electrolytes (SEs) have become a practical option for lithium ion and lithium metal batteries due to their improved safety over commercially available ionic liquids. The most promising of the SEs are the thiophosphates whose excellent ionic conductivities at room temperature are comparable to those of the commercially-utilized ionic liquids. Hybrid solid-liquid electrolytes exhibit higher ionic conductivities than their bare solid electrolyte counterparts due to decreased grain boundary resistance, enhanced interfacial contact with electrodes, and decreased degradation at the interface. In this study, we add lithium bis(triflouromethane sulfonyl)imide (LiTFSI) and a highly fluorinated ether (HFE) solvate electrolyte to the surface of Li7P3S11 (LPS) and Li10GeP2S12 (LGPS) pellets and evaluate their overall cell resistance in Li-Li symmetric cells relative to their bare Li/SE/Li counterparts. Time-resolved electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) shows an order of magnitude lower cell resistance for the LGPS-solvate than for the bare LGPS. Cyclic voltammetry (CV) of the bare and hybrid SE cells shows an order of magnitude higher current density for the LGPS-solvate cell over the bare LGPS. Interestingly, hybrid electrolytes made by combining HFE-modified solvates and SE exhibit all the benefits of the interlayer modified SEs, without the necessity of pellet manufacture. This study suggests that solvates can be used to improve the cell resistance and current density of solid electrolytes by altering the grain boundary structures and the interphase between electrode and electrolyte.