• Progress toward fast-charging lithium-me

    From ScienceDaily@1:317/3 to All on Thu Feb 9 21:30:26 2023
    Progress toward fast-charging lithium-metal batteries
    By growing uniform lithium crystals on a surprising surface, engineers
    open a new door to fast-charging lithium-metal batteries

    Date:
    February 9, 2023
    Source:
    University of California - San Diego
    Summary:
    Engineers report progress toward lithium-metal batteries that
    charge fast -- as fast as an hour. This fast charging is thanks to
    lithium metal crystals that can be seeded and grown -- quickly and
    uniformly -- on a surprising surface. The trick is to use a crystal
    growing surface that lithium officially doesn't 'like.' From these
    seed crystals grow dense layers of uniform lithium metal. Uniform
    layers of lithium metal are of great interest to battery researchers
    because they lack battery- performance-degrading spikes called
    dendrites.


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    FULL STORY ==========================================================================
    In a new Nature Energy paper, engineers report progress toward
    lithium-metal batteries that charge fast -- as fast as an hour. This fast charging is thanks to lithium metal crystals that can be seeded and grown
    -- quickly and uniformly -- on a surprising surface. The trick is to use a crystal growing surface that lithium officially doesn't "like." From these
    seed crystals grow dense layers of uniform lithium metal. Uniform layers
    of lithium metal are of great interest to battery researchers because
    they lack battery-performance-degrading spikes called dendrites. The
    formation of these dendrites in battery anodes is a longstanding roadblock
    to fast-charging ultra-energy-dense lithium-metal batteries.


    ==========================================================================
    This new approach, led by University of California San Diego engineers,
    enables charging of lithium-metal batteries in about an hour, a speed
    that is competitive against today's lithium-ion batteries. The UC San
    Diego engineers, in collaboration with UC Irvine imaging researchers,
    published this advance aimed at developing fast-charging lithium-metal batteries on Feb. 9, 2023 in Nature Energy.

    To grow lithium metal crystals, the researchers replaced the ubiquitous
    copper surfaces on the negative side (the anode) of lithium-metal
    batteries with a lithiophobic nanocomposite surface made of lithium
    fluoride (LiF) and iron (Fe). Using this lithiophobic surface for
    lithium deposition, lithium crystal seeds formed, and from these seeds
    grew dense lithium layers -- even at high charging rates. The result
    was long-cycle-life lithium-metal batteries that can be charged quickly.

    "The special nanocomposite surface is the discovery," said UC San
    Diego nanoengineering professor Ping Liu, the senior author on the new
    paper. "We challenged the traditional notion of what kind of surface is
    needed to grow lithium crystals. The prevailing wisdom is that lithium
    grows better on surfaces that it likes, surfaces that are lithiophilic. In
    this work, we show that is not always true. The substrate we use does
    not like lithium. However, it provides abundant nucleation sites along
    with fast surface lithium movement.

    These two factors lead to the growth of these beautiful crystals. This
    is a nice example of a scientific insight solving a technical problem."
    The new advance led by UC San Diego nanoengineers could eliminate a
    significant roadblock that is holding back widespread use of energy-dense lithium-metal batteries for applications like electric vehicles (EVs)
    and portable electronics. While lithium-metal batteries hold great
    potential for EVs and portable electronics because of their high charge density, today's lithium- metal batteries must be charged extremely
    slowly in order to maintain battery performance and avoid safety
    problems. The slow charging is necessary to minimize the formation of battery-performance-wrecking lithium dendrites that form as lithium
    ions join with electrons to form lithium crystals on the anode side of
    the battery. Lithium crystals build up as the battery charges, and the
    lithium crystals dissolve as the battery discharges.

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    ========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by
    University_of_California_-_San_Diego. Original written by Daniel
    Kane. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


    ========================================================================== Journal Reference:
    1. Zhaohui Wu, Chunyang Wang, Zeyu Hui, Haodong Liu, Shen Wang,
    Sicen Yu,
    Xing Xing, John Holoubek, Qiushi Miao, Huolin L. Xin & Ping
    Liu. Growing single-crystalline seeds on lithiophobic substrates
    to enable fast- charging lithium-metal batteries. Nature Energy,
    2023 DOI: 10.1038/ s41560-023-01202-1 ==========================================================================

    Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/02/230209114730.htm

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