AG10 battery

Cryo-EM may bring technological innovation to AG10 battery and usher in a new era

Cryo-EM is the winning technology of the 2017 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Because cryo-EM can freeze samples at ultra-low temperatures, it is particularly suitable for the observation of electron beam-sensitive materials such as biological macromolecules. Therefore, it shines in the structural characterization of biological macromolecules and brings the research field of life sciences into a new era.

When the Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded in 2017, cryo-EM was still less used in the field of chemistry. Some people joked that cryo-EM was the Nobel Prize in Chemistry given to physicists to reward them for helping biologists, and the Nobel Prize in Science is indeed worthy of its reputation.

After winning the Chemistry Prize, you should still do some chemical work. Shortly after the award, Professor Cui Yi of Stanford University reported in Science that cryo-EM obtained the first atomic-level lithium metal dendrite image (Science, 2017, 358, 506-510, DOI: 10.1126/science.aam6014).

In AG10 battery, lithium dendrites will pierce the battery separator during growth, causing short circuits and even fires. The electrodes and electrolytes often form a solid-electrolyte interphase (SEI), which is also considered to be the precursor to the formation of lithium dendrites. Therefore, understanding the properties of these two structures has a huge driving force for improving the safety and performance of AG10 battery. Because of the active nature of lithium and the complexity of the solid-liquid interface, conventional characterization techniques often have no way to start with lithium battery research.

The detailed characterization of these two key structures is the main content of today's Nature article.

The latest Nature reported the results of a research team from Cornell University. They used cryogenic technology combined with other technologies to conduct a detailed morphological and chemical composition analysis of the electrolyte solid-liquid interface of AG10 battery. The nanoscale details of the solid-liquid battery interface were revealed (Nature 560, 345–349 (2018), doi: 10.1038/s41586-018-0397-3).

When the lithium-metal battery is working, the electrolyte is still kept on the electrode surface by quenching, which is equivalent to obtaining a sample in the original state when the real battery is working.

The cryo-technique is integrated with other technologies to characterize the dendrite structure (dendrite) and solid electrolyte interphase (solid electrolyte interphase, SEI) coating of the lithium metal battery in detail. The relevant technologies include cryo-focused ion beam (cryo-FIB), cryo-STEM (cryo-scanning transmission electron microscopy, cryo-STEM) and cryo-EELS technology.

Complete information is obtained on the morphology, chemical composition and spatial distribution of the dendrite and SEI layer near the electrolyte-lithium electrode.

It was found that there are two types of dendrites coexisting in the lithium negative electrode, type 1 and type 2. One of them has a very wide SEI layer structure and is oxidized metallic lithium, while the other dendrite is composed of lithium hydride.

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