Toward solid-state Li-air batteries; an SOFC perspective of solid 3D architectures, heterogeneous interfaces, and oxygen exchange kinetics.

The full electrification of transportation will require batteries with both 3-5× higher energy densities and a lower cost than what is available in the market today. Energy densities of >1000 W h kg will enable electrification of air transport and are among the very few technologies capable of achieving this energy density. Li-O or Li-air are theoretically able to achieve this energy density and are also capable of reducing the cost of batteries by replacing expensive supply chain constrained cathode materials with "free" air.

Extreme lithium-metal cycling enabled by a mixed ion- and electron-conducting garnet three-dimensional architecture.

The development of solid-state Li-metal batteries has been limited by the Li-metal plating and stripping rates and the tendency for dendrite shorts to form at commercially relevant current densities. To address this, we developed a single-phase mixed ion- and electron-conducting (MIEC) garnet with comparable Li-ion and electronic conductivities. We demonstrate that in a trilayer architecture with a porous MIEC framework supporting a thin, dense, garnet electrolyte, the critical current density can be increased to a previously unheard of 100 mA cm, with no dendrite-shorting.

3D Asymmetric Bilayer Garnet-Hybridized High-Energy-Density Lithium-Sulfur Batteries.

Lithium garnet LiLaZrO (LLZO), with high ionic conductivity and chemical stability against a Li metal anode, is considered one of the most promising solid electrolytes for lithium-sulfur batteries. However, an infinite charge time resulting in low capacity has been observed in Li-S cells using Ta-doped LLZO (Ta-LLZO) as a solid electrolyte. It was observed that this cell failure is correlated with lanthanum segregation to the surface of Ta-LLZO that reacts with a sulfur cathode.