Transition of lithium growth mechanisms in liquid electrolytes
Name
Bazant_Transition of lithium.pdf
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3.1 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
6bb67e26d96d849af21cb7c73266fd30
Author(s)
Bai, Peng
Li, Ju
Brushett, Fikile R
Bazant, Martin Z
Date Issued
September 2016
Journal
Energy and Environmental Science
Publisher
Royal Society of Chemistry
Citation
Bai, Peng et al. “Transition of Lithium Growth Mechanisms in Liquid Electrolytes.” Energy Environ. Sci. 9.10 (2016): 3221–3229.
Version
Final published version
Abstract
Next-generation high-energy batteries will require a rechargeable lithium metal anode, but lithium dendrites tend to form during recharging, causing short-circuit risk and capacity loss, by mechanisms that still remain elusive. Here, we visualize lithium growth in a glass capillary cell and demonstrate a change of mechanism from root-growing mossy lithium to tip-growing dendritic lithium at the onset of electrolyte diffusion limitation. In sandwich cells, we further demonstrate that mossy lithium can be blocked by nanoporous ceramic separators, while dendritic lithium can easily penetrate nanopores and short the cell. Our results imply a fundamental design constraint for metal batteries (“Sand's capacity”), which can be increased by using concentrated electrolytes with stiff, permeable, nanoporous separators for improved safety.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Chemical Engineering
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Materials Science and Engineering
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mathematics
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1039/c6ee01674j
