Lithium, Interfaces & Action: Desiging on Fast Track Next Solid Battery Materials

Next generation of energy storage devices may largely benefit from fast and solid Li⁺ceramic electrolyte conductors to allow for safe and efficient batteries. For those applications, the ability of Li-oxides to engineer their interfaces and be processed as thin film structures and with high control over Lithiation and phases at low temperature is of essence to control conductivity. Through this presentation we review the field from a new angle, not only focused on the classics such as Li-ionic transport and electrochemical stability window for Li-solid state battery electrolytes, but focusing on opportunities and challenges routes in thermal and ceramic processing of the components and their assemblies with electrodes. Also, we will carefully review and give perspectives on the role of solid state battery ceramic strategies for the electrolyte on the electrode interfaces and towards charge transfer and vs. current densities. In other words, it will be a little ceramicist (own) love story on the good and the evil we can design by smart ceramic manufacture at the interfaces originating by the very first choices made in the electrolyte ceramic structure and material design. We will disclose a new invented “sequential deposition synthesis” (SDS) to offer a low budget alternative with high stoichioemtric control for battery solid electrolyte manufacture that extends prior ceramic classic synthesis routes and show first cell data. Here we will also look into first use-cases where we apply the SDS for high throughput manufacture and analytics of battery-grade solidified materials and emply spectroscopic techniques for fast screening coupled with Baysian optimization to tune structure-property performance characteristcics.<br/>In the second part we will look at various options to either eingineer grain boundaries as a way to control majority and minority charge carriers at interfaces and within space chages to ultimately alter critical current densities of batteries. Or, in the opposite synthesize and design a new class of ‘high entropy” Li amorphous conductors without any grain boundaries. Both material cases will be demonstrated based on Li-garnets that have so far the highest known number of local bonding units and a rich nature to either manipulate the amorphous Li+ conductance or grain boundaries via dopants.<br/>Collectively, the insights on solid state energy storage provide evidence for the functionalities that those Li-solid state material designs can have in new materials and synthesis for cost and mass manufacturable solid state and hybrid battery prototypes.