PFI-TT: Next Generation Lithium-Metal Batteries for High Performance, Low Cost and Safe Energy Storage

该创新伙伴关系（PFI-TT）项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力是开发高性能，低成本和安全的锂金属电池。预计这将转化为下一代能量存储能量密度的突破性改进，并可以提供比目前最好的锂离子电池高2倍的性能和低3倍的成本。这将大大降低笔记本电脑、手机、可穿戴设备、全电动汽车以及电网存储的电池重量、尺寸和成本。除了性能和成本，该项目的一个主要重点是电池安全。 特别是，我们将探索新的方法来防止锂金属电池中的短路和发热问题，从而使其安全。 该项目的交付成果将是一个最低限度的可行产品，可以接受第三方验证，也可以由潜在客户进行现场测试。此类测试将提供对设备级性能、成本和安全指标的详细了解，并将有助于推动该技术走向商业可行性。 我们的实习模式旨在发展一个强大的创业和创新生态系统。为此，开展了一系列广泛的活动（如创业培训、交流技能发展、创业支助、实习等），将提供帮助学生发展他们的研究的整体观点。该项目旨在用锂离子电池中的一种非常优越的上级替代品取代石墨阳极。我们建议将锂以金属形式储存，而不是将锂原子储存在石墨基质中，这会导致更高的能量密度。然而，任何锂金属电池的致命弱点是枝晶的不受控制的生长，这可能使电池短路。我们建议通过利用一种新的方法来克服这一挑战，该方法涉及应用优化幅度的高电流密度（用于修复目的）以在电池中产生内部自热。这种受控加热触发锂在枝晶表面上的大量表面扩散，这使枝晶尖端变钝并使锂金属表面变平滑。我们的主要目标是证明安全（即，该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Partnerships for Innovation (PFI-TT) project is to enable the development of high performance, low cost and safe Lithium-metal batteries. This is expected to translate into breakthrough improvements in energy density for next generation energy storage and could deliver ~2X higher performance and ~3X lower cost than the current best Lithium-ion batteries. This would enable significant reduction in battery weight, size and cost for laptops, cell phones, wearable devices, all-electric vehicles, as well as grid storage. Beyond performance and cost, a major focus of this project is on battery safety. In particular, we will explore novel methods to prevent short circuiting and heating problems in lithium-metal batteries, thereby rendering them safe. The deliverable for this project will be a minimum viable product that can be subjected to third-party validation and also field-tested by potential customers. Such testing will provide a detailed understanding of device level performance, cost and safety metrics and will be instrumental in advancing this technology towards commercial viability. Our traineeship model aims to develop a robust entrepreneurial and innovation ecosystem. For this, a broad range of activities (such as entrepreneurship training, communication skills development, venture support, internships etc.), will be offered to help students develop a holistic view of their research. The proposed project aims to replace graphitic anodes with a vastly superior alternative in Lithium-ion batteries. Instead of storing lithium atoms within a graphite host, we propose to store Lithium in its metallic form, which leads to much higher energy density. However, the Achilles heel for any Lithium-metal battery is the uncontrolled growth of dendrites which can electrically short the battery. We propose to overcome this challenge by utilizing a novel approach that involves applying high current densities of optimized magnitude (for healing purposes) to generate internal self-heat in the battery. This controlled heating triggers massive surface diffusion of Lithium on the dendritic surface, which blunts the dendrite tips and smoothens the Lithium metal surface. Our main objective is to demonstrate safe (i.e., dendrite-free) operation of high energy density and low cost Lithium-metal batteries in larger format pouch and cylindrical cells and perform detailed device level characterization.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.