Diagnosing and correcting anode-free cell failure via electrolyte and morphological analysis

A. J. Louli, A. Eldesoky, Rochelle Weber, M. Genovese, Matt Coon, Jack deGooyer, Zhe Deng, R. T. White, Jaehan Lee, Thomas Rodgers, R. Petibon, S. Hy, Shawn J. H. Cheng and J. R. Dahn ()
Additional contact information
A. J. Louli: Dalhousie University
A. Eldesoky: Dalhousie University
Rochelle Weber: Dalhousie University
M. Genovese: Dalhousie University
Matt Coon: Dalhousie University
Jack deGooyer: Dalhousie University
Zhe Deng: Hua Zhong University of Science and Technology
R. T. White: Carl Zeiss Microscopy
Jaehan Lee: Carl Zeiss Microscopy
Thomas Rodgers: Carl Zeiss Microscopy
R. Petibon: Tesla Canada R&D
S. Hy: Tesla Canada R&D
Shawn J. H. Cheng: Tesla Canada R&D
J. R. Dahn: Dalhousie University

Nature Energy, 2020, vol. 5, issue 9, 693-702

Abstract: Abstract Anode-free lithium metal cells store 60% more energy per volume than conventional lithium-ion cells. Such high energy density can increase the range of electric vehicles by approximately 280 km or even enable electrified urban aviation. However, these cells tend to experience rapid capacity loss and short cycle life. Furthermore, safety issues concerning metallic lithium often remain unaddressed in the literature. Recently, we demonstrated long-lifetime anode-free cells using a dual-salt carbonate electrolyte. Here we characterize the degradation of anode-free cells with this lean (2.6 g Ah−1) liquid electrolyte. We observe deterioration of the pristine lithium morphology using scanning electron microscopy and X-ray tomography, and diagnose the cause as electrolyte degradation and depletion using nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy and ultrasonic transmission mapping. For the safety characterization tests, we measure the cell temperature during nail penetration. Finally, we use the insights gained in this work to develop an optimized electrolyte, extending the lifetime of anode-free cells to 200 cycles.

Date: 2020
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DOI: 10.1038/s41560-020-0668-8

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