NU 2022-034
INVENTORS Cory M. Thomas West Woo Jin Hyun Mark C. Hersam*
SHORT DESCRIPTION A new blade-coatable ionogel electrolyte that enables high energy density solid-state lithium metal batteries with excellent cycling stability and rate performance
ABSTRACT Northwestern researchers have developed a new approach to address critical scalability issues for ionogel electrolyte production for solid-state lithium metal batteries. This technology is a blade-coatable ionogel electrolyte formulation based on hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) nanoplatelets, which are used as a gelation matrix for ionic liquids. The resulting hBN ionogel electrolyte has blade-coatable rheological properties, including a stable combination of lithium metal anode with excellent cycling performance, compatibility with existing lithium-ion battery manufacturing infrastructure, high room-temperature ionic conductivities (> 1 mS cm-1), applicability over a wide area in a thin (< 40 μm) and crack-free film, and high-quality interfacial contact with cathode composite electrodes. This unique technique may be applied to high energy density solid-state lithium metal batteries, which have an enormous potential for replacing lithium-ion batteries, particularly in markets for next-generation energy storage technologies for electric vehicles, grid-level energy storage, and portable electronic devices.
APPLICATIONS
ADVANTAGES
PUBLICATION Thomas, C. M., Hyun, W. J., Huang, H. C., Zeng, D., & Hersam, M. C. (2022). Blade-Coatable Hexagonal Boron Nitride Ionogel Electrolytes for Scalable Production of Lithium Metal Batteries. ACS Energy Letters, 7(4), 1558-1565.
IP STATUS US patent applications have been filed.
Schematic illustration of the blade-coating procedure with hBN ionogel electrolyte.