Graphitic Hollow Nanocarbon as a Promising Conducting Agent for Solid-State Lithium Batteries

All-solid-state batteries (ASSBs) have lately received enormous attention for electric vehicle applications because of their exceptional stability by engaging all-solidified cell components. However, there are many formidable hurdles such as low ionic conductivity, interface instability, and difficulty in the manufacturing process, for its practical use. Recently, carbon, one of the representative conducting agents, turns out to largely participate in side reactions with the solid electrolyte, which finally leads to the formation of insulating side products at the interface. Although the battery community mentioned that parasitic reactions are presumably attributed to carbon itself or the generation of electronic conducting paths lowering the kinetic barrier for reactions, the underlying origin for such reactions as well as appropriate solutions have not been provided yet. In this study, for the first time, it is verified that the functional group on carbon is an origin for causing negative effects on interfacial stability and a graphitized hollow nanocarbon as a promising solution for improving-electrochemical performance is introduced. This work offers an invaluable lesson that a relatively minor part, such as a conducting agent, in ASSBs sometimes gives more positive impact on improving electrochemical performance than huge efforts for resolving other parts.