Lithium electrodeposition

The electronic insulation of these electrodeposited polymer layers must hold to a two-terminal voltage of 4 V if lithium (or lithium ion) anodes are to be used in the 3-D nanobattery. Because the polymers must also be thin, high dielectric strengths are critical. As seen in Table 2, diminishing the thickness of the dielectric to the nanoscale exacts a higher standard in terms of the quality of the dielectric. For example. 

Some metals, which are difficult to deposit electrolytically from aqueous solutions, can be deposited from appropriate 11011-aqueous solutions. They are, for example, alkali metals, magnesium, and aluminum. They are usually deposited at more negative potentials than the reduction of water. The electrodeposition of lithium... 

Mukaibo H, Sumi T, Yokoshima T, Momma T, Osaka T. Electrodeposited Sn-Ni alloy film as a high capacity anode material for lithium-ion secondary batteries. Electrochem Solid-State Lett 2003 6 A218-A220. 

While the structure at the electrode/ionic liquid interface is uncertain it is clear that in the absence of neutral molecules the concentration of anions and cations at the interface will be potential dependent. The main difference between aqueous solutions and ionic liquids is the size of the ions. The ionic radii of most metal ions are in the range 1-2 A whereas for most ions of an ionic liquid they are more typically 3-5 A. This means that in an ionic liquid the electrode will be coated with a layer of ions at least 6-7 A thick. To dissolve in an ionic liquid most metal species are anionic and hence the concentration of metal ions close to the electrode surface will be potential dependent. The more negative the applied potential the smaller the concentration of anions. This means that reactive metals such as Al, Ta, Ti and W will be difficult to deposit as the effective concentration of metal might be too low to nucleate. It is proposed, as one explanation, that this is the reason that aluminum cannot be electrodeposited from Lewis basic chloroaluminate ionic liquids. More reactive metals such as lithium can however be deposited using ionic liquids because they are cationic and therefore... 

Wilkes launched the field of air- and moisture-stable ionic liquids by introducing five new materials, each containing the Tethyl-3-methylimidazolium cation [EMIMJ+ with one of five anions nitrate [NC>3], nitrite [NO2]-, sulfate [SC>4]2, methyl carbonate [CH3CO2]- and tetrafluoroborate [BF [47]. Only the last two materials had melting points lower than room temperature, and the reactive nature of the methyl carbonate would make it unsuitable for many applications. This led to the early adoption of [EMIM][BF4] as a favored ionic liquid, which has since been the subject of over 350 scientific publications. One of the first appeared in 1997 [50], reporting the investigation of [EMIM][BF4] as the electrolyte system for a number of processes, including the electrodeposition of lithium (intended for use in lithium ion batteries). 

Solubility of metal salts in ILs is extremely important in electrodeposition. In this section, the solubility of metal salts in air stable ILs is summarized. The solubility of metal salts in halometalate type ILs has been summarized in previous reports [90, 91]. In addition, many IL systems have been reported as electrolytes for lithium-ion secondary batteries. Some metal salts were reported to be soluble above 50 mol%. However, these systems were obtained by mixing ILs with metal salts in organic solvent or water followed by removal of the solvent this may produce supersaturated solutions. In this section, these systems are omitted due to space limitations. 

Between 1980 and about 2000 most of the studies on the electrodeposition in ionic liquids were performed in the first generation of ionic liquids, formerly called room-temperature molten salts or ambient temperature molten salts . These liquids are comparatively easy to synthesize from AICI3 and organic halides such as Tethyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride. Aluminum can be quite easily be electrode-posited in these liquids as well as many relatively noble elements such as silver, copper, palladium and others. Furthermore, technically important alloys such as Al-Mg, Al-Cr and others can be made by electrochemical means. The major disadvantage of these liquids is their extreme sensitivity to moisture which requires handling under a controlled inert gas atmosphere. Furthermore, A1 is relatively noble so that silicon, tantalum, lithium and other reactive elements cannot be deposited without A1 codeposition. Section 4.1 gives an introduction to electrodeposition in these first generation ionic liquids. 

Alkali metals have high oxidation-reduction potentials and low atomic masses. Thus they are attractive candidates for anodes in secondary batteries. In this context, it was shown in a couple of investigations that lithium and sodium can be electrodeposited from tetrachloroaluminate-based ionic liquids. 

The first electrodeposition of lithium from an ionic liquid was reported in 1985 by Lipsztajn and Osteryoung [2], They were able to deposit lithium from a 1-ethyl-3-methyl-imidazolium chloride/aluminum trichloride ionic liquid. They noticed that a neutral ionic liquid, a neutral basic ionic liquid (neutral + small excess of RC1) and a neutral acidic ionic liquid (neutral + small excess of AICI3) each have unique features. Both the basic and the neutral acidic ionic liquids show an extension of 1.5 V of the electrochemical window, making them interesting for electrochemical applications. 

Piersma et al. demonstrated that lithium can be electrodeposited from 1-ethyl -3-methyl-imidazolium tetrachloroaluminate ionic liquid, when lithium chloride was dissolved in the melt [3], Platinum, glassy carbon and tungsten were used as working electrodes with molybdenum and platinum foils as counter electrodes. At -2.3 V a reduction peak of Li+ is observed and at about -1.6 V the stripping of lithium occurs. They noticed that the efficiency was much less than 100%. In addition, they were able to demonstrate that the addition of proton sources like triethanolamine-HCl widens the electrochemical window and allows the plating and stripping of lithium (and also sodium). 

In this section we will show that air- and water-stable ionic liquids can be used for the electrodeposition of highly reactive elements which cannot be obtained from aqueous solutions, such as aluminum, magnesium and lithium, and also refractory metals such as tantalum and titanium. Although these liquids are no longer air-and water-stable when AICI3, TaFs, TiCU and others are dissolved, quite interesting results can be obtained in these liquids. 

Impurities are a concern in ionic liquids electrochemistry. Whereas even considerable amounts of impurities, like different metal ions, water or organic impurities, might not disturb a technical process (e.g. extractive distillation, organic synthesis) the wide electrochemical windows of an ionic liquid ( 3 V vs. NHE) allow the electrodeposition of even reactive metals like lithium and potassium, as well as the oxidation of halides to the respective gases. In the best case this codeposition only leads to a low level of impurities, in the worst case fundamental physicochemical studies are made impossible as the impurities are adsorbed onto the electrode surface and subsequently reduced. Furthermore, passivation or activation effects at the counter electrode have to be expected. 

In this chapter we would like to present some plating protocols for the electrodeposition of aluminum, lithium, tantalum and zinc from different ionic liquids. These recipes have been elaborated in our laboratories and should allow the beginner to perform his first electrodeposition experiments. For aluminum we give four different recipes in order to show that the ionic liquid itself can strongly influence the deposition of metals. In the case of tantalum the deposition of the metallic phase is not straightforward as, in unstirred solutions, the more nonstoichiometric tantalum halides form the higher the current density for electrodeposition. Apart from the zinc deposition all experiments should be performed at least under dry air. 

Electrodeposition of Li from 1-Butyl-l-methylpyrrolidinium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)amide/Lithium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)amide... 

Lead and mercury are deposited as micron-sized clusters, predominantly at intercrystallite boundaries [105] so does lithium from the polyethylene oxide solid electrolyte. What is more, Li intercalates into the sp2-carbon [22, 138], Thus, observations on the Li intercalation and deintercalation enable one to detect non-diamond carbon on the diamond film surface. Copper is difficult to plate on diamond [139], There is indirect evidence that Cu electrodeposition, whose early stages proceed as underpotential deposition, also involves the intercrystallite boundaries [140], We note that diamond electrodes seem to be an appropriate tool for use in the well-known electroanalytical method of detection of traces of metal ions in solutions by their cathodic accumulation followed by anodic stripping. The same holds for anodic deposition, e.g. of, Pb as PbCh with subsequent cathodic reduction [141, 142], Figure 30 shows the voltammograms of anodic dissolution of Cd and Pb cathodically predeposited from their salt mixtures on diamond and glassy carbon electrodes. We see that the dissolution peaks are clearly resolved. The detection limit for Zn, Cd, and Pb is as low as a few ppb [143]. 

At the same time, it was found that Li metal is an unsafe negative electrode material [11, 13]. Upon charging a battery, lithium is electrodeposited on the Li metal electrode. During this process, formation of dendrites was observed, and after multiple charge/discharge cycles, those dendrites penetrated the separator and led to an internal short circuit of the cell with intense heat formation and sometimes even combustion of the cell. 

It was recognized that this dendrite problem could not be solved without completely changing the negative electrode. Instead of electrodepositing metal, the anode reaction of choice was found to be storage of lithium in compounds with chemical potentials of lithium being very close to the pure Li metal. 

Room-temperature ionic liquids (denoted RTILs) have been studied as novel electrolytes for a half-century since the discovery of the chloroaluminate systems. Recently another system consisting of fluoroanions such as BF4 and PFg , which have good stability in air, has also been extensively investigated. In both systems the nonvolatile, noncombustible, and heat resistance nature of RTILs, which cannot be obtained with conventional solvents, is observed for possible applications in lithium batteries, capacitors, solar cells, and fuel cells. The nonvolatility should contribute to the long-term durability of these devices. The noncombustibility of a safe electrolyte is especially desired for the lithium battery [1]. RTILs have been also studied as an electrodeposition bath [2]. 

---