Wet Chemistry Route to LiInCl: Microstructural Control Render High Ionic Conductivity and Enhanced All-Solid-State Battery Performance.

Thanks to superionic conductivity and compatibility with >4 V cathodes, halide solid electrolytes (SEs) have elicited tremendous interest for application in all-solid-state lithium batteries (ASSLBs). Many compositions based on groups 3, 13, and divalent metals, and substituted stoichiometries have been explored, some displaying requisite properties, but the Li conductivity still falls short of theoretical predictions and appealing sulfide-type SEs. While controlling microstructural characteristics, namely grain boundary effects and microstrain, can boost ionic conductivity, they have rarely been considered.

Averting H-Mediated Charge Storage Chemistry Stabilizes the High Output Voltage of LiMnO-Based Aqueous Battery.

H co-intercalation chemistry of the cathode is perceived to have damaging consequences on the low-rate and long-term cycling of aqueous zinc batteries, which is a critical hindrance to their promise for stationary storage applications. Herein, the thermodynamically competitive H storage chemistry of an attractive high-voltage cathode LiMnO is revealed by employing operando and ex-situ analytical techniques together with density functional theory-based calculations. The H electrochemistry leads to the previously unforeseen voltage decay with cycling, impacting the available energy density, particularly at lower currents.

3D Printed Solid Polymer Electrolytes with Bicontinuous Nanoscopic Domains for Ionic Liquid Conduction and Energy Storage.

Solid polymer electrolytes (SPEs) offer several advantages compared to their liquid counterparts, and much research has focused on developing SPEs with enhanced mechanical properties while maintaining high ionic conductivities. The recently developed polymerization-induced microphase separation (PIMS) technique offers a straightforward pathway to fabricate bicontinuous nanostructured materials in which the mechanical properties and conductivity can be independently tuned. In this work SPEs with tunable mechanical properties and conductivities are prepared via digital light processing 3D printing, exploiting the PIMS process to achieve nanostructured ion-conducting materials for energy storage applications.