Abstract
Here, we present a comparison of lithium metal films produced via rolling and thermal evaporation using synchrotron hard X-ray microtomography. In past studies of rolled lithium metal foils, a large number of C, O, and N impurities were found and identified as the key cause for failure in lithium metal cells. In this comparison, the X-ray tomography data show that the evaporated lithium metal films have an average impurity concentration of 19 particles/mm3 in comparison to 1350 particles/mm3 in the rolled lithium metal. An analysis of the inner substrate/lithium interface and outer lithium surface of the thermally evaporated film shows a much greater concentration of impurities at these interfaces, further emphasizing the importance of interface engineering in producing high-quality lithium metal batteries. We show that, if surface contamination can be avoided, it is possible to obtain lithium films with no impurities detectable by synchrotron hard X-ray tomography.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 1120-1124 |
| Number of pages | 5 |
| Journal | ACS Energy Letters |
| Volume | 7 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Mar 11 2022 |
Funding
The authors would like to thank Juergen Janek for useful discussions regarding this work. The US Department of Energy’s Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Vehicles Technologies Office provided funding for this work under the US-German Cooperation on Energy Storage: Lithium-Solid-Electrolyte Interfaces program. A.S.H. was supported by a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship (DGE-2020294884). Hard X-ray experiments were performed at the Advanced Light Source, which is supported by the Director, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, of the U.S. Department of Energy under Contract No. DE-AC02-05CH11231. J.A.M. was supported by a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship (DGE-2752814). The US Department of Energy’s Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Vehicles Technologies Office provided funding for this work under the US-German Cooperation on Energy Storage: Lithium-Solid-Electrolyte Interfaces program. A.S.H. was supported by a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship (DGE-2020294884). Hard X-ray experiments were performed at the Advanced Light Source, which is supported by the Director, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, of the U.S. Department of Energy under Contract No. DE-AC02–05CH11231. J.A.M. was supported by a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship (DGE-2752814).