Abstract
Rough electrodeposition, uncontrolled parasitic side reactions with electrolytes, and dendrite-induced short circuits have hindered development of advanced energy storage technologies based on metallic Li, Na, and Al electrodes. Solid polymer electrolytes and nanoparticle-polymer composites have shown promise as candidates to suppress Li dendrite growth, but the challenge of simultaneously maintaining high mechanical strength and high ionic conductivity at room temperature has so far been unmet in these materials. Here, we report a facile and scalable method of fabricating tough, freestanding membranes that combine the best attributes of solid polymers, nanocomposites, and gel polymer electrolytes. Hairy nanoparticles are employed as multifunctional nodes for polymer cross-linking, which produces mechanically robust membranes that are exceptionally effective in inhibiting dendrite growth in a lithium metal battery. The membranes are also reported to enable stable cycling of lithium batteries paired with conventional intercalating cathodes. Our findings appear to provide an important step towards room-temperature dendrite-free batteries.
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Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the National Science Foundation, Award No. DMR–1006323 and by Award No. KUS–C1018–02, made by King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST). Small angle X-ray scattering facilities available through the Cornell High Energy Synchrotron Source (CHESS) were used in the study. CHESS is supported by the NSF and NIH/NIGMS via NSF award DMR-1332208.
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Appendix: Supplementary Information
Appendix: Supplementary Information
3.1.1 Supplementary Figures
3.1.2 Supplementary Tables
3.1.3 Supplementary Methods
The size of clusters was obtained by fitting the SAXS data with Beaucage unified Eq. (3.1) as shown below.
First two terms (Guinier and power-law) contribute to the scattering for spheres in a dilute suspension with radius \( a=\sqrt{\frac{5}{3}}{R}_{\mathrm{p}} \)~ 4–5 nm and power-law exponent p1(~4). A and B are the Guinier and Porod scaling factors. The last term contributes to the scattering from the fractal objects in the low q regime with \( {R}_{\mathrm{fractal}}=\sqrt{\frac{5}{3}}{R}_{\mathrm{c}} \) ~ 51–72 nm with a power exponent p2~2, indicating the fractals to be mass fractals. Since the low q regime has only the power-law scattering, no Guinier term has been included suggesting that the Rfractal obtained from the fitting will be the lower bound as exact dimension cannot be determined. C is the prefactor for the power-law scattering in the low q. Absence of any additional structure contribution in intermediate to high q suggests that the particles are reasonably far apart.
3.1.4 Supplementary Reference
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Beaucage, G.: Small-angle scattering from polymeric mass fractals of arbitrary mass fractal dimension. J. Appl. Crystallogr. 29(2), 134–146 (1996)
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Choudhury, S. (2019). A Highly Reversible Room-Temperature Lithium Metal Battery Based on Cross-Linked Hairy Nanoparticles. In: Rational Design of Nanostructured Polymer Electrolytes and Solid–Liquid Interphases for Lithium Batteries. Springer Theses. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-28943-0_3
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