Martin Finsterbusch

Reactions of garnet-based solid-state lithium electrolytes with water — A depth-resolved study

Abstract Garnet Li6.4La3Zr1.6Ta0.4O12 thin films prepared by magnetron sputtering were analysed by secondary ion mass spectrometry, nuclear reaction analysis and Rutherford backscattering to identify, localize and quantify the reactions associated with the presence of low amounts of water and carbon dioxide. Samples in a pristine state and after storage in an Argon-filled glove box for months were compared. Both, lithium hydroxide and lithium carbonate were detected, with carbon-containing species and hydrogen-containing having surprisingly different depth profiles.

High Capacity Garnet-Based All-Solid-State Lithium Batteries: Fabrication and 3D-Microstructure Resolved Modeling

The development of high-capacity, high-performance all-solid-state batteries requires the specific design and optimization of its components, especially on the positive electrode side. For the first time, we were able to produce a completely inorganic mixed positive electrode consisting only of LiCoO2 and Ta-substituted Li7La3Zr2O12 (LLZ:Ta) without the use of additional sintering aids or conducting additives, which has a high theoretical capacity density of 1 mAh/cm2. A true all-solid-state cell composed of a Li metal negative electrode, a LLZ:Ta garnet electrolyte, and a 25 μm thick LLZ:Ta + LiCoO2 mixed positive electrode was manufactured and characterized. The cell shows 81% utilization of theoretical capacity upon discharging at elevated temperatures and rather high discharge rates of 0.1 mA (0.1 C). However, even though the room temperature performance is also among the highest reported so far for similar cells, it still falls far short of the theoretical values. Therefore, a 3D reconstruction of the manufactured mixed positive electrode was used for the first time as input for microstructure-resolved continuum simulations. The simulations are able to reproduce the electrochemical behavior at elevated temperature favorably, however fail completely to predict the performance loss at room temperature. Extensive parameter studies were performed to identify the limiting processes, and as a result, interface phenomena occurring at the cathode active material/solid-electrolyte interface were found to be the most probable cause for the low performance at room temperature. Furthermore, the simulations are used for a sound estimation of the optimization potential that can be realized with this type of cell, which provides important guidelines for future oxide based all-solid-state battery research and fabrication.

Ab Initio Modelling of Electrode Material Properties

We discuss elastic and thermodynamic aspects of LiCoO\(_2\) in the context of fracture propagation and hot spot formation. Approaching the problem via ab initio modelling, we can access the delithiated states which is difficult experimentally. Application of density functional theory in the quasi-harmonic approximation provides good agreement in the range of experimentally available data for isobaric heat capacities, suggesting to complement thermodynamic databases required for the modelling of heat flows. The results for the mechanical characteristics suggest a brittle-to-ductile transition with varying lithium contents and crack orientations perpendicular to the basal plane, as indicated by the obtained elastic tensors experimentally.