Choudhury Snehashis, Mangal Rahul, Agrawal Akanksha, Archer Lynden A
School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Cornell University, 120 Olin Hall, Ithaca, New York 14853, USA.
Nat Commun. 2015 Dec 4;6:10101. doi: 10.1038/ncomms10101.
Rough electrodeposition, uncontrolled parasitic side-reactions with electrolytes and dendrite-induced short-circuits have hindered development of advanced energy storage technologies based on metallic lithium, sodium and aluminium electrodes. Solid polymer electrolytes and nanoparticle-polymer composites have shown promise as candidates to suppress lithium dendrite growth, but the challenge of simultaneously maintaining high mechanical strength and high ionic conductivity at room temperature has so far been unmet in these materials. Here we report a facile and scalable method of fabricating tough, freestanding membranes that combine the best attributes of solid polymers, nanocomposites and gel-polymer electrolytes. Hairy nanoparticles are employed as multifunctional nodes for polymer crosslinking, which produces mechanically robust membranes that are exceptionally effective in inhibiting dendrite growth in a lithium metal battery. The membranes are also reported to enable stable cycling of lithium batteries paired with conventional intercalating cathodes. Our findings appear to provide an important step towards room-temperature dendrite-free batteries.
粗糙的电沉积、与电解质不受控制的寄生副反应以及枝晶引发的短路阻碍了基于金属锂、钠和铝电极的先进储能技术的发展。固体聚合物电解质和纳米颗粒-聚合物复合材料已显示出有望成为抑制锂枝晶生长的候选材料，但在这些材料中，迄今为止尚未解决在室温下同时保持高机械强度和高离子电导率这一挑战。在此，我们报告了一种简便且可扩展的方法，用于制备坚韧、独立的膜，该膜结合了固体聚合物、纳米复合材料和凝胶聚合物电解质的最佳特性。多毛纳米颗粒被用作聚合物交联的多功能节点，从而产生机械坚固的膜，这种膜在抑制锂金属电池中的枝晶生长方面格外有效。据报道，这些膜还能使与传统插层阴极配对的锂电池实现稳定循环。我们的研究结果似乎为室温无枝晶电池迈出了重要一步。
