I-Corps: Hybrid Solid State Electrolytes

I-Corps项目更广泛的影响和商业潜力在于安全的下一代锂电池的进步，这种电池可以为行驶里程超过300英里的电动汽车提供动力，并存储风能和太阳能产生的间歇性能源。用安全的固体电解质取代目前用于锂离子电池的挥发性易燃液体电解质是许多现有和未来电池技术的目标。这种固体电解质分离器的开发在许多经济部门以及开发锂离子，锂金属，锂硫（li）和锂空气电池的公司具有广泛的应用。该技术可适用于许多锂离子导电陶瓷，保护它们不与锂金属和水接触，并使它们与聚合物电解质结合，从而形成可加工且与现有制造工艺或技术兼容的复合材料，以制造电池。I-Corps项目解决了阻碍所有固态锂电池发展的几个关键问题。它是一种融合了锂离子导电陶瓷和有机聚合物电解质的有益特性的技术。锂离子导电陶瓷具有高导电性，宽电化学稳定窗口和模量，原则上可以抑制枝晶的生长，但易碎且不易融入完整的电池。聚合物电解质具有良好的可加工性，易于并入电池单元，与电极的相容性较好，但离子电导率较低。该技术使用二氧化硅“胶”将这两种材料融合在一起，这种“胶”可以很好地附着在陶瓷上，并且可以功能化以与聚合物组件兼容。这已经用聚合物/陶瓷/聚合物的三明治几何形状证明了，表明两种成分之间的界面阻力很低。当纳米层应用于陶瓷颗粒时，聚合物或聚合物凝胶可以形成具有两种组分所需性能的复合材料。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识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 potentials of this I-Corps project is the advancement of safe, next generation lithium batteries that can power electric vehicles with driving ranges in excess of 300 miles, and store intermittent energy generated by wind and solar sources. Replacement of volatile, flammable liquid electrolytes now used in lithium ion batteries with safe solid electrolytes is the goal of many existing and future battery technologies. The development of such a solid electrolyte separator has broad applications in many economic sectors and to companies developing lithium ion, lithium metal, lithium sulfur (LiS) and lithium air batteries. The technology can be applicable to many lithium ion conducting ceramics, protecting them from contact with lithium metal and water, and enabling them to be bonded with polymer electrolytes, so that composites can be formed that are processible and compatible with existing manufacturing processes or technologies to make batteries.This I-Corps project addresses several critical problems that hinder the development of all solid state lithium batteries. It is a technology that merges the beneficial characteristics of both lithium ion conducting ceramics and organic polymer electrolytes. Lithium ion conducting ceramics can have high conductivity, wide electrochemical stability windows and moduli that in principle suppress the growth of dendrites, but are brittle and not easily incorporated into full cells. Polymer electrolytes have good processibility, can be easily incorporated into battery cells and have better compatibility with electrodes, but have low ionic conductivity. The technology merges these two materials using silica "glue" that adheres well to the ceramic and can be functionalized to be compatible with the polymer component. This has been demonstrated using the sandwich geometry of polymer/ceramic/polymer, showing that there is low interfacial resistance between the two components. When nanometer layers are applied to ceramic particles, composites with polymers or polymer gels can be formed with the desirable properties of both components.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.