Lithium electrolyte interface

Polymer electrolytes have been shown to stabilize the lithium/electrolyte interface, yielding stable and low interface resistance, especially when ceramic additives such as y-LiA102 are used. Furthermore, the 7-LiA102 ceramic additive has been shown to stabilize the polymer amorphous phase and to slow down the recrystallization process [99-103]. Thus, the unique electrochemical performance of lithium metal can be applied in practical devices by substitution of the liquid electrolyte with a solid one whose conductivity and stability can be enhanced with ceramic additives. 

The positive effect of ceramic fillers on the nature and properties of the lithium-electrolyte interface was recognised quite early and the first suppositions were that the filler grains can gather at the interface, decreasing the surface area between the lithium electrode and the polyether. However that supposition was discarded with the help of experiments conducted with the use of both low and high molecular weight PEO-based electrolytes (Syzdek et al. 2007). 

The early literature (until 1982) is summarized in Refs. [1] and [2], Hundreds of papers have been published since then (most of them in since 1994) and it is impossible to summarize all of them here. The Proceedings of the conferences mentioned above are good, sources of recent developments though sometimes incomplete. Since the early 1980s new systems have been introduced. The most important of these are lithium-ion batteries (which have lithiated carbonaceous anodes) and polymer-electrolyte batteries. Until 1991 very little was published on the Li/polymer-electrolyte interface [3, 4], The application of the SEI model to Li-PE batteries is ad-... 

It is now well established that in lithium batteries (including lithium-ion batteries) containing either liquid or polymer electrolytes, the anode is always covered by a passivating layer called the SEI. However, the chemical and electrochemical formation reactions and properties of this layer are as yet not well understood. In this section we discuss the electrode surface and SEI characterizations, film formation reactions (chemical and electrochemical), and other phenomena taking place at the lithium or lithium-alloy anode, and at the Li. C6 anode/electrolyte interface in both liquid and polymer-electrolyte batteries. We focus on the lithium anode but the theoretical considerations are common to all alkali-metal anodes. We address also the initial electrochemical formation steps of the SEI, the role of the solvated-electron rate constant in the selection of SEI-building materials (precursors), and the correlation between SEI properties and battery quality and performance. 

Since this is a new field, little has been published on the LiXC6 /electrolyte interface. However, there is much similarity between the SEIs on lithium and on LixC6 electrodes. The mechanism of formation of the passivation film at the interface between lithiated carbon and a liquid or polymer electrolyte was studied by AC impedance [128, 142]. Two semicircles observed in AC-impedance spectra of LiAsF6/EC-2Me-THF electrolytes at 0.8 V vs. Li/Li+ [142] were attributed to the formation of a surface film during the first charge cycle. However, in the cases of LiC104 or LiBF4 /EC-PC-DME (di-... 

The lithium-storage properties of these Si SiOx/C nanocomposite electrodes were investigated in different electrolyte systems and compared to pure Si nanoparticles. From all the analyzed systems, the Si SiOx-C nanocomposite in conjunction with the solvent vinylene carbonate (VC) to form the solid-electrolyte interface showed the best lithium storage performance in terms of a highly reversible lithium-storage capacity (1100 mAh g-1), excellent cycling performance, and high rate capability (Fig. 7.9). 

Peled s Model Anode/Electrolyte Interface Film. In their proposal of SEI formation on a carbonaceous electrode in nonaqueous electrolytes, Dahn actually adopted Peled s model for lithium s surface and extended it to carbonaceous electrodes. By this model, a two-dimensional passivation film is established via a surface reaction. 

Beyond any doubt, the electrode/electrolyte interfaces constitute the foundations for the state-of-the-art lithium ion chemistry and naturally have become the most active research topic during the past decade. However, the characterization of the key attributes of the corresponding surface chemistries proved rather difficult, and significant controversy has been generated. The elusive nature of these interfaces is believed to arise from the sensitivity of the major chemical compounds that originated from the decomposition of electrolyte components. 

This corrosion of the SEI by linear carbonate solvents would undoubtedly produce adverse effects on the performance of lithium ion cells. During longterm cycling, the damaged SEI has to be repaired constantly by the same electrochemical reactions that occurred in the initial formation process, which consumes the limited lithium ion source in the cell and increases the impedance at the electrode/ electrolyte interface. 

This sharp decline in cell output at subzero temperatures is the combined consequence of the decreased capacity utilization and depressed cell potential at a given drain rate, and the possible causes have been attributed so far, under various conditions, to the retarded ion transport in bulk electrolyte solutions, ° ° - ° ° the increased resistance of the surface films at either the cathode/electrolyte inter-face506,507 Qj. anode/electrolyte interface, the resistance associated with charge-transfer processes at both cathode and anode interfaces, and the retarded diffusion coefficients of lithium ion in lithiated graphite anodes. - The efforts by different research teams have targeted those individual electrolyte-related properties to widen the temperature range of service for lithium ion cells. 

The latter authors used anode and cathode symmetrical cells in EIS analysis in order to simplify the complication that often arises from asymmetrical half-cells so that the contributions from anode/ electrolyte and cathode/electrolyte interfaces could be isolated, and consequently, the temperature-dependences of these components could be established. This is an extension of their earlier work, in which the overall impedances of full lithium ion cells were studied and Ret was identified as the controlling factor. As Figure 68 shows, for each of the two interfaces, Ra dominates the overall impedance in the symmetrical cells as in a full lithium ion cell, indicating that, even at room temperature, the electrodic reaction kinetics at both the cathode and anode surfaces dictate the overall lithium ion chemistry. At lower temperature, this determining role of Ra becomes more pronounced, as Figure 69c shows, in which relative resistance , defined as the ratio of a certain resistance at a specific temperature to that at 20 °C, is used to compare the temperature-dependences of bulk resistance (i b), surface layer resistance Rsi), and i ct- For the convenience of comparison, the temperature-dependence of the ion conductivity measured for the bulk electrolyte is also included in Figure 69 as a benchmark. Apparently, both and Rsi vary with temperature at a similar pace to what ion conductivity adopts, as expected, but a significant deviation was observed in the temperature dependence of R below —10 °C. Thus, one... 

As has been shown in Eigure 68, since the time constants for these two electrochemical components, Rsei and Ra, are comparable at anode/electrolyte and cathode/electrolyte interfaces, respectively, the impedance spectra of a full lithium ion could have similar features in which the higher frequency semicircle corresponds to the surface films on both the anode and the cathode, and the other at lower frequency corresponds to the charge-transfer processes occurring at both the anode and the cathode. ... 

In addition to the criticisms from Anderman, a further challenge to the application of SPEs comes from their interfacial contact with the electrode materials, which presents a far more severe problem to the ion transport than the bulk ion conduction does. In liquid electrolytes, the electrodes are well wetted and soaked, so that the electrode/electrolyte interface is well extended into the porosity structure of the electrode hence, the ion path is little affected by the tortuosity of the electrode materials. However, the solid nature of the polymer would make it impossible to fill these voids with SPEs that would have been accessible to the liquid electrolytes, even if the polymer film is cast on the electrode surface from a solution. Hence, the actual area of the interface could be close to the geometric area of the electrode, that is, only a fraction of the actual surface area. The high interfacial impedance frequently encountered in the electrochemical characterization of SPEs should originate at least partially from this reduced surface contact between electrode and electrolyte. Since the porous structure is present in both electrodes in a lithium ion cell, the effect of interfacial impedances associated with SPEs would become more pronounced as compared with the case of lithium cells in which only the cathode material is porous. 

A polymer electrolyte with acceptable conductivity, mechanical properties and electrochemical stability has yet to be developed and commercialized on a large scale. The main issues which are still to be resolved for a completely successful operation of these materials are the reactivity of their interface with the lithium metal electrode and the decay of their conductivity at temperatures below 70 °C. Croce et al. found an effective approach for reaching both of these goals by dispersing low particle size ceramic powders in the polymer electrolyte bulk. They claimed that this new nanocomposite polymer electrolytes had a very stable lithium electrode interface and an enhanced ionic conductivity at low temperature. combined with good mechanical properties. Fan et al. has also developed a new type of composite electrolyte by dispersing fumed silica into low to moderate molecular weight PEO. 

Ionically conducting polymers and their relevance to lithium batteries were mentioned in a previous section. However, there are several developments which contain both ionically conducting materials and other supporting agents which improve both the bulk conductivity of these materials and the properties of the anode (Li)/electrolyte interface in terms of resistivity, passivity, reversibility, and corrosion protection. A typical example is a composite electrolyte system comprised of polyethylene oxide, lithium salt, and A1203 particles dispersed in the polymeric matrices, as demonstrated by Peled et al. [182], By adding alumina particles, a new conduction mechanism is available, which involved surface conductivity of ions on and among the particles. This enhances considerably the overall conductivity of the composite electrolyte system. There are also a number of other reports that demonstrate the potential of these solid electrolyte systems [183],... 

Table 3, which presents the various surface compounds formed on Li electrodes in the various solutions, together with reaction schemes 1-10, describes well the basic surface chemistry developed on the carbons. Similar results concerning the surface chemistry developed on carbons in alkyl carbonate mixtures have also been obtained by others [363-365], Hence, carbon electrodes are also solid electrolyte interface (SEI) electrodes, similar to lithium i.e., the overall insertion process of Li into the carbons requires the necessary step of Li ion... 

As already mentioned, salt-containing liquid solvents are typically used as electrolytes. The most prominent example is LiPF6 as a conductive salt, dissolved in a 1 1 mixture of ethylene carbonate (EC) and dimethyl carbonate (DMC) as 1 molar solution. It should be mentioned that this electrolyte is not thermodynamically stable in contact with lithium or, for example, LiC6. Its success comes from the fact that it forms an extremely stable passivation layer on top of the electrode, the so-called solid-electrolyte interface (SEI) [35], Key properties of such SEI layers are high Li+ and very low e conductivity - that is, they act as additional electrolyte films, where the electrode potential drops to a level the liquid electrolyte can withstand [36],... 

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