All-Solid-State Lithium Metal Batteries Enabled By Solid Electrolytes with Low-Temperature Processability

All-Solid-State lithium metal batteries are highly sought-after to improve the safety of high energy density batteries for electric vehicles, aircraft, and seacraft. Despite the proliferation of high-conductivity solid electrolytes, it remains a significant challenge to create conformal interfaces between them and the active materials in the battery. Furthermore, the poor electrochemical stability of known solid electrolytes often necessitates the co-design of protective coatings and interlayers, which increase cell resistance. Here, I will discuss a novel materials platform for advanced solid electrolytes that are readily processed at <150C, creating molecularly coherent interfaces with both lithium metal as well as a diverse selection of high-voltage storage materials and conductive carbons integrated in the cathode. I will describe how the composition may be tailored to achieve conductivity up to 10 mS/cm at ambient temperature. In stride, I will present electroanalytical and surface analytical characterization to define pathways for promoting or inhibiting the formation of interphases at the anode and cathode. Through control over interphases, we realize highly stable all-solid-state cells with >500 cycles with less than 80% capacity fade at current densities up to 1 mA/cm2 at an cell temperatures <45 C and stack pressures less than 0.5 MPa.