Li metal solid state batteries (SSBs) enable high energy and power as well as improve the overall safety of the device over conventional LiBs1–4. In an anode-free battery, the Li-metal plates and strips on the bare current collector during the charge and discharge, respectively. Although decreasing the nucleation energy to promote electrochemical plating and stripping in solid-solid interfaces is challenging, the feasibility of this configuration in a SSB has already been demonstrated for some cycles 5,6. In our group, we have a solid background on SSBs using a wide range of solid electrolytes (oxides, sulfides, polymers and composites)7–13. The goal of the PhD is to develop anode-less SSBs using inorganic solid electrolyte. The main focus of this PhD will be on the design and development of stable artificial interfaces between the SE and the current collector aiming to create nucleation sites that promote reversible lithium plating and dissolution.

Inorganic or polymeric coatings will be applied considering methods such as sputtering, coating, evaporation or spin coating, to create interfaces at the (sub)micron scale. Advanced surface analysis techniques will be applied to elucidate the microstructure of lithium plated and stripped on cells and to understand the complex nature of physical/chemical phenomena during Li nucleation. Synchrotron 3D X-Ray Tomography will be conducted to observe the morphology and heterogeneities on the lithium growth process at the electrode. Such powerful imaging technique allows for high resolution and high contrast reconstructions to visualize Li metal. The PhD student will spend his/her secondment at LRCS-UPJV to develop the experimental setup dedicated to the proposed experiments and for image processing and data analysis.

References:

1. V. Etacheri, R. Marom, R. Elazari, G. Salitra and D. Aurbach, Energy Environ. Sci., 2011, 4, 3243–3262.
2. Promises, Challenges, and Recent Progress of Inorganic Solid‐State Electrolytes for All‐Solid‐State Lithium Batteries - Gao - 2018 - Advanced Materials - Wiley Online Library, https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/adma.201705702, (accessed October 2, 2018)
3. C. Yu, S. Ganapathy, E. R. H. van Eck, H. Wang, S. Basak, Z. Li and M. Wagemaker, Nature Communications, 2017, 8, 1086
4. F. Zheng, M. Kotobuki, S. Song, M. O. Lai and L. Lu, Journal of Power Sources, 2018, 389, 198–213
5. M. J. Wang, E. Carmona, A. Gupta, P. Albertus and J. Sakamoto, Nat Commun, 2020, 11, 5201
6. Y.-G. Lee, S. Fujiki, C. Jung, N. Suzuki, N. Yashiro, R. Omoda, D.-S. Ko, T. Shiratsuchi, T. Sugimoto, S. Ryu, J. H. Ku, T. Watanabe, Y. Park, Y. Aihara, D. Im and I. T. Han, Nature Energy, 2020, 1–10
7. P. López-Aranguren, X. Judez, M. Chakir, M. Armand and L. Buannic, J. Electrochem. Soc., 2020, 167, 020548
8. A. I. Pitillas Martinez, F. Aguesse, L. Otaegui, M. Schneider, A. Roters, A. Llordés and L. Buannic, J. Phys. Chem. C, 2019, 123, 3270–3278
9. A. H. Dao, P. López-Aranguren, J. Zhang, F. Cuevas and M. Latroche, Materials, 2020, 13, 402
10. F. Aguesse, W. Manalastas, L. Buannic, J. M. Lopez Del Amo, G. Singh, A. Llordés and J. Kilner, ACS Appl Mater Interfaces, 2017, 9, 3808–3816.

Supervisor(s) contact: Lanceros-Méndez, Senentxu; senentxu.lanceros@bcmaterials.net / López-Aranguren, Pedro; plopez@cicenergigune.com