Design and discovery of new non-oxide based materials

与氧化物材料相比，在金属元素极性非氧化物化合物的开发上花费的精力较少。该项目将通过合成新的成分和详细的结构和性能表征来开发新型的非氧化物扩展固体。这些材料将被评估为一系列应用的特性，例如作为固态电池的电解质，这是下面的例子。由于高能量密度、大电化学稳定窗口和长寿命等因素，锂离子电池的优越性能使其成为当前便携式可充电设备的首选技术。目前的安全问题可能会限制锂离子电池在电动汽车等大规模技术中的使用，因此解决这些问题是可取的。在目前的锂离子系统中，有机溶剂被用作电解质的一部分。这些化合物的可燃性意味着，如果锂离子电池在其限制的温度范围之外工作，可能会造成严重的安全风险。此外，通过电解质的枝晶生长可能导致电池系统短路，这意味着（无论它具有极高的理论充电容量）锂目前不能用作阳极材料，限制了锂离子电池使用当前阳极材料的总体容量。这些问题的一个可能的解决方案是以固态电解质的形式出现的，因此，与液体电解质相比，作为分离器和电解质的全固态电池（assb）具有更高的安全性和高能量密度。利用新的合成和一系列表征技术（包括多源衍射，阻抗，固态核磁共振和电化学稳定性表征），我们将研究用于assb的新型固态电解质材料，例如硫化物基材料。

Compared to oxide materials, less effort has been expended on the development of polar non-oxide compounds of the metallic elements. This project will develop new classes of non-oxide extended solid, through synthesis of new compositions and detailed structural and property characterisation. These materials will be evaluated for properties of interest for a range of applications, for example as electrolytes in solid-state batteries, which is taken as the example in what follows.The superior performance of Lithium-ion batteries due to factors such as high energy density, large electrochemical stability window and long lifetime make them the current technology of choice for portable, rechargeable devices. It would be desirable to address current safety issues that may limit the use of Lithium-ion batteries for large-scale technologies such as electric vehicles. Organic solvents are used as part of the electrolyte in current Li-ion systems. The flammable nature of these compounds mean Li-ion batteries can pose a severe safety risk if they are operated outside of their limited temperature range. Furthermore, dendritic growth through the electrolyte can lead to short circuiting of the battery system meaning (irrespective of it having an extremely high theoretical charge capacity) Li cannot currently be used as an anode material limiting the overall capacity that Lithium-ion batteries can have with current anode materials. A possible solution to these issue comes in the form of solid state electrolytes and thus all-solid-state batteries (ASSBs) that act as a separator and an electrolyte, have higher safety and a high energy density when compared to their liquid electrolyte counterparts. Using new syntheses and a range of characterisation techniques (including multiple source diffraction, impedance, solid state NMR and electrochemical stability characterisation) we will investigate new solid state electrolyte materials for use in ASSBs, exploring for example chalcogenide-based materials.