Recently, Prof. Wang Feng, Prof. Niu Jin, and co-workers from CMSE published a paper entitled “Lithium superionic conductive nanofiber-reinforcing high-performance polymer electrolytes for solid-state batteries” in the internationally renowned journal, Journal of the American Chemical Society. Although composite solid-state electrolytes (CSEs) are considered promising ionic conductors for high-energy lithium metal batteries, their unsatisfactory ionic conductivity, low mechanical strength, poor thermal stability, and narrow voltage window limit their practical applications. The researchers have prepared a new lithium superionic conductor (Li-HA-F) with an ultralong nanofiber structure and ultrahigh room-temperature ionic conductivity (12.6 mS cm−1). When it is directly coupled with a typical poly(ethylene oxide)-based solid electrolyte, the Li-HA-F nanofibers endow the resulting CSE with high ionic conductivity (4.0×10−4 S cm−1 at 30 °C), large Li+ transference number (0.66), and wide voltage window (5.2 V). Detailed experiments and theoretical calculations reveal that Li-HA-F supplies continuous dual-conductive pathways and results in stable LiF-rich interfaces, leading to its excellent performance. Moreover, the Li-HA-F nanofiber-reinforced CSE exhibits good heat/flame resistance and flexibility, with a high breaking strength (9.66 MPa). As a result, the Li/Li half cells fabricated with the Li-HA-F CSE exhibit good stability over 2000 h with a high critical current density of 1.4 mA cm−2. Furthermore, the LiFePO4/Li-HA-F CSE/Li and LiNi0.8Co0.1Mn0.1O2/Li-HA-F CSE/Li solid-state batteries deliver high reversible capacities over a wide temperature range with a good cycling performance. The research work provides a new idea for the development of composite solid electrolyte and lithium metal solid state battery. Moreover, this paper was selected as the cover paper of the current issue.
The first author of the paper is Peng Jiaying, a PhD student in CMSE. Prof. Wang Feng and Prof. Niu Jin are the co-corresponding authors. Beijing University of Chemical Technology is the first completion unit. This work has been supported by the National Key Research and Development Plan of China, the National Natural Science Foundation of China, and the Central University Basic Research Funds.
Article information: Jiaying Peng, Dawei Lu, Shiqi Wu, Na Yang, Yujie Cui, Zhaokun Ma, Mengyue Liu, Yongzheng Shi, Yilin Sun, Jin Niu, Feng Wang. Lithium superionic conductive nanofiber-reinforcing high-performance polymer electrolytes for solid-state batteries. Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2024, 146 (17), 1897-11905.
