As the demand for energy storage devices with high energy densities increases, lithium metal batteries have emerged as the most promising candidates owing to their high theoretical capacity (3,860 mAh/g) and the lowest redox potential (-3.04 V vs. SHE). However, the safety issue of lithium metal batteries remain a major challenge, caused by short-circuit of the cells with lithium dendrite formation. Given that lithium dendrite is formed at the interfaces between lithium metal and electrolyte and makes a growth across polymeric separator, coating of lithium metal surfaces has been considered to be an effective means of preventing and/or retarding the lithium dendrite growth. Here, we investigate single-ion conducting polymers as a new coating material of lithium metal batteries by taking advantages of high mechanical stability and high lithium transference number of single-ion polymers. With the variation of morphology of the surface coating layers, interfacial resistance of the cells and the diffusivity of lithium ion were controlled. This enabled the improvement of discharge capacity and rate capability of the resultant lithium metal batteries.

Dendrite-free lithium metal batteries based on single-ion polymers

256th National Meeting (2018)

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