Development of 3D hybrid electrolytes and nanostructured electrodes for scalable manufacturing of new-generation high-energy density solid-state lithium batteries********

锂离子电池（LIB）是一种“隐形”技术，它使移动的电子产品大量普及，最近使电动汽车商业化。此外，LIB越来越多地用于存储由间歇性可再生能源（如太阳能）产生的电力。然而，由于使用易燃的有机溶剂电解质，这些电池存在固有的安全漏洞，因此最近智能手机、汽车甚至飞机发生了一些壮观的灾难性事件。与此同时，当前状态LIB的能量密度相当有限，无法满足对更多封装功率的需求。例如，电池组的能量密度决定了电动汽车在需要充电之前的行驶里程。虽然我们可以使这些电池组越来越大，但由于成本和重量/体积，这是适得其反的，因此我们需要开发新一代电池，这些电池将是安全的，具有合理的成本和高能量密度。在这种情况下，人们普遍认为，构建包含固体电解质、锂金属作为阳极和高压阴极的固态锂电池是实现这一目标的最佳选择。然而，这种发展受到许多挑战的阻碍，如在室温下可以具有良好的离子电导率并且在与Li金属阳极和阴极的界面处具有低电阻的固体电解质的设计。另一个巨大的挑战是防止锂金属阳极生长所谓的枝晶（树状延伸），这种枝晶可能会穿透电解质导致电池失效。但解决这些问题必须以一种允许以具有竞争力的成本进行可扩展制造的方式进行。为此，我们的团队与世界领先的锂离子电池研发公司Hydro-Quebec合作，提出设计和开发一种新型复合电解质，该电解质由多孔陶瓷框架制成，填充电化学稳定的导电聚合物，并与新型纳米工程阳极和高压阴极连接。拟议的研究构成了一种具有巨大创新潜力的原创方法，可实现重大技术突破，从而在快速增长的市场中开展先进的制造活动。

Li-ion batteries (LIBs) are the "invisible" technology that enabled the tremendous proliferation of mobile electronics and more recently the commercialization of electric vehicles. Additionally, LIBs find increasing use in storage of electricity generated from intermitting renewable sources like solar. These batteries however suffer from an inherent safety vulnerability due to the use of flammable organic solvent electrolytes hence some recent spectacular catastrophic incidents with smart phones, cars and even airplanes. At the same time the energy density of current state LIBs is rather limited to meet the demand for more packaged power. It is the energy density of a battery pack for example that determines the driving range of an electric car before it requires recharging. While we can make these battery packs bigger and bigger this is rather counterproductive because of cost and weight/volume hence we need to develop new generation batteries that will be safe and with high energy density at reasonable cost. In this context, it is widely accepted that building solid-state lithium batteries incorporating a solid electrolyte, Li metal as anode, and a high-voltage cathode by far offers the best option to achieve this goal. Such development however is hampered by a number of challenges as are the design of a solid electrolyte that can have good ionic conductivity at room-T and low resistance at the interface with the Li metal anode and the cathode. Another big challenge is to prevent the Li metal anode for growing so-called dendrites (sort of tree-like extensions) that can lead to battery failure by penetrating through the electrolyte. But solving these problems has to be done in a way that allows for scalable manufacturing at competitive cost. To this end our team in collaboration with Hydro-Quebec, a world leader in LIB R&D, proposes to design and develop a new composite electrolyte made of a porous ceramic framework filled with electrochemically stable conducting polymer and interfaced with a novel nano engineered anode and a high-voltage cathode. The proposed research constitutes an original approach with great innovative potential for major technological breakthroughs leading to advanced manufacturing activity in a fast growing market.********