Enhanced ionic conductivity and lithium dendrite suppression of polymer solid electrolytes by alumina nanorods and...

Poor room-temperature ionic conductivity and lithium dendrite formation are the main issues of solid electrolytes. In this work, rod-shaped alumina incorporation and graphite coating were simultaneously applied to poly (propylene carbonate) (PPC)-based polymer solid electrolytes (Wang et al., 2018). The obtained alumina modified solid electrolyte membrane (Al-SE) achieves a high ionic conductivity of 3.48 × 10^-4 S/cm at room temperature with a wide electrochemical window of 4.6 V. The assembled NCM622/Al-SE/Li solid-state battery exhibits initial discharge capacities of 198.2 mAh/g and 177.5 mAh/g at the current density of 0.1 C and 0.5 C, with the remaining capacities of 165.8 mAh/g and 161.3 mAh/g after 100 cycles respectively. The rod-shaped structure of Al₂O₃ provides fast transport channels for lithium ions and its Lewis acidity promotes the dissociation of lithium salts and release of free lithium ions. The lithiophilic Al₂O₃ and Graphite form intimate contact with metallic Li and create fast Li⁺ conductive layers of Li-Al-O layer and LiC₆ layer, thus facilitating the uniform deposition of Li and inhibiting Li dendrite formation during long-term cycling. This kind of composite Al-SE is expected to provide a promising alternative for practical application in solid electrolytes.