Suite of High-Throughput Experiments for Screening Solid Electrolytes for Li Batteries

Abstract

All-solid lithium batteries are an important technology to achieve safer batteries with potentially longer life. Efforts over the past decade have generated a vast list of candidate solid electrolytes. High-throughput methods have already been useful in this context, but studies have been limited to room temperature ionic conductivities. Although a high ionic conductivity is necessary, this single property is insufficient to ensure function in a solid battery. Herein, a suite of high-throughput methods is introduced where 64 samples are synthesized simultaneously. Herein, we demonstrate for the first time the high-throughput capability of obtaining: (1) ionic conductivities at and above room temperature to extract activation energies, (2) electronic conductivities to evaluate the risk of dendrite growth within the electrolytes, (3) electrochemical stability window, and (4) chemical stability against lithium. Importantly, the stability window is obtained by testing the electrolyte in a composite electrode with conductive carbon, thereby avoiding the overestimations of stability that are rampant in the literature. Each method was validated using two reference materials chosen as they show high contrast for all properties. The results systematically show excellent reproducibility and good agreement with the literature. This suite of techniques provides meaningful properties necessary to evaluate candidate solid electrolytes.