September 19, 2018
Feature

Stopping Fires before They Start: How a Salty Solution is Giving Lithium Metal Batteries a Safety Check

Researchers gain traction in bringing high-performing batteries to their full potential

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Ignition tests show how a glass fiber soaked with the promising new electrolyte (right) does not catch fire.

Researchers have long considered lithium metal batteries to be the “holy grail” for energy storage. They have high energy density—how much energy a battery carries relative to its weight. This means they can be made smaller and lighter, while storing the same amount of energy as larger, heavier batteries made from other materials, or they can carry more energy in the same size battery.

Packing more energy into the same size battery means an electric vehicle using lithium metal batteries can drive farther on a single charge. In fact, batteries with a lithium metal anode have the potential to more than double the energy density of current electric vehicle batteries. But, among other performance improvements, they must first be made safer to use.

A PNNL research team has addressed safety as well as performance challenges posed by lithium metal batteries through the development of a new electrolyte. The electrolyte in a battery is the chemical solution that allows the electrical flow between the anode and cathode. The new electrolyte is described in the article “High-Efficiency Lithium Metal Batteries with Fire-Retardant Electrolytes,” published in Joule.

Finding the “Solution” to Prevent Fires

The main safety challenge with lithium metal batteries involves spikes or strands, called dendrites, of lithium that grow on the battery’s anode. Dendrites can drain the battery’s power, short its internal circuits, and impact the battery recharging capabilities. In some cases, dendrites have spontaneously combusted and caught fire.

To lessen or eliminate these safety and performance challenges, the team replaced components in an electrolyte containing a localized highly concentrated salt (lithium bis(fluorosulfonyl)imide) with a flame-retardant inert—or chemically inactive—material, triethyl phosphate/bis(2,2,2-trifluoroethyl) ether.

The combined solution forms highly-concentrated salt clusters that coat the anode with a layer of lithium deposits, eliminating dendrite formation and extinguishing the safety concerns.

A Salty, Yet Steady, Performance

The coating does not hurt the performance of the lithium metal anode, which has high efficiency (99.2%).

“The safe and stable high performance of this battery shows that we are one step closer to using lithium metal batteries in practical applications for electric vehicles,” said Ji-Guang (Jason) Zhang(Offsite link), a battery expert and Laboratory Fellow at PNNL. “These findings may also help the development of similar, less expensive electrolytes to improve the performance and safety of other battery types.”

This research was supported by the Battery500 Consortium funded through the DOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy’s Vehicle Technologies Office(Offsite link). The microscopy and spectroscopy measurements were conducted in the William R. Wiley Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory, a national scientific user facility sponsored by the DOE Office of Biological and Environmental Research(Offsite link).

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About PNNL

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory draws on its distinguishing strengths in chemistry, Earth sciences, biology and data science to advance scientific knowledge and address challenges in sustainable energy and national security. Founded in 1965, PNNL is operated by Battelle for the Department of Energy’s Office of Science, which is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States. DOE’s Office of Science is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, visit https://energy.gov/science. For more information on PNNL, visit PNNL's News Center. Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram.

Published: September 19, 2018

PNNL Research Team

Shuru Chen, Jianming Zheng, Lu Yu, Xiaodi Ren, Mark H. Engelhard, Chaojiang Niu, Hongkyung Lee, Wu Xu, Jie Xiao, Jun Liu, and Ji-Guang Zhang