A Unique Platform for High-Throughput Combinatorial Coating of Thiophosphate Thin-Film Electrolytes onto Bulk Battery Electrodes

I will showcase a recently acquired, highly customized materials synthesis platform dedicated to air-sensitive materials containing sulfur and phosphorus. To the best of my knowledge, this is the only synthesis platform in the world where it is possible to deposit thin-film thiophosphate superionic conductors of any elemental composition in a high-throughput, combinatorial fashion.<br/><br/>This platform is of significant interest for solid-state battery research for two main reasons:<br/><br/>1) It enables intimate coating of bulk electrode particles with a thin solid electrolyte, with potentially improved interface properties and an increased energy density to a lower weight.<br/><br/>2) Bulk synthesis of solid electrolytes is not amenable to parallelized, high-throughput experimentation by combinatorial methods. Conversely, our thin-film deposition setup is designed to easily obtain compositional gradients (e.g., a P/S ratio gradient in one direction and a Li/Ge ratio in the perpendicular direction). Together with the automated, mapping-type characterization instruments in our laboratories, these combinatorial methods enable fast screening of multicomponent phase diagrams (as well as process parameters at constant composition) in the search for optimal properties in emerging or completely new battery materials. Materials of interest can be either electrodes or solid electrolytes.<br/><br/>As a synthesis-oriented material scientist within the optoelectronics field, I hope that this contribution will promote discussion and potential future collaboration with battery experts.