Professor Dong-Myeong Shin of the Department of Mechanical Engineering and his team worked on the research for the topic "Accelerated selective Li+ transports assisted by microcrack-free anionic network polymer membranes for long cyclable lithium metal batteries", a paper in Advanced Science”. The research findings were recently published in Advanced Science on February 13, 2024.
Details of the publication:
"Accelerated selective Li+ transports assisted by microcrack-free anionic network polymer membranes for long cyclable lithium metal batteries", a paper in Advanced Science
Jingyi Gao, Jiaming Zhou, Xiaodie Chen, Ran Tao, Yao Li, Yu Ru, Chang Li, Eunjong Kim, Xiaoting Ma, Min Wang, Yoonseob Kim, Seungkyu Lee, Dong-Myeong Shin, article in Advanced Science
Abstract
Rechargeable Li metal batteries have the potential to meet the demands of high-energy density batteries for electric vehicles and grid-energy storage system applications. Achieving this goal, however, requires resolving not only safety concerns and a shortened battery cycle life arising from a combination of undesirable lithium dendrite and solid-electrolyte interphase formations. Here, a series of microcrack-free anionic network polymer membranes formed by a facile one-step click reaction are reported, displaying a high cation conductivity of 3.1 × 10−5 S cm−1 at high temperature, a wide electrochemical stability window up to 5 V, a remarkable resistance to dendrite growth, and outstanding non-flammability. These enhanced properties are attributed to the presence of tethered borate anions in microcrack-free membranes, which benefits the acceleration of selective Li+ cations transport as well as suppression of dendrite growth. Ultimately, the microcrack-free anionic network polymer membranes render Li metal batteries a safe and long-cyclable energy storage device at high temperatures with a capacity retention of 92.7% and an average coulombic efficiency of 99.867% at 450 cycles.