Host material for stabilizing lithium metal electrode, and fabricating method and applications of same

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11108045-B2
Application number	US-201716341484-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 24, 2017
Priority date	Oct 24, 2016
Publication date	Aug 31, 2021
Grant date	Aug 31, 2021

Abstract

The invention relates to a host material for stabilizing a Li metal electrode, fabricating methods and applications of the same. The host material includes crumpled graphene balls operably defining a scaffold having volumes and voids inside and in between the crumpled graphene balls so as to allow uniform and stable Li deposition/dissolution inside and in between the crumpled graphene balls without electrode volume fluctuations or with sufficiently small electrode volume fluctuations. The crumpled paper ball-like structures of graphene particles can readily assemble to yield the scaffold with scalable Li loading up to 10 mAh cm-2 within tolerable volume fluctuations. High Coulombic efficiency of 97.5% over 750 cycles (1500 hours) is achieved. Plating/stripping Li up to 12 mAh cm-2 on the crumpled graphene scaffold does not experience dendrite growth.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A host material for stabilizing a lithium (Li) metal electrode, comprising:
a scaffold comprising crumpled graphene balls, defining volumes and voids inside and in between the crumpled graphene balls so as to allow uniform and stable Li deposition/dissolution inside and in between the crumpled graphene balls without electrode volume fluctuations or with sufficiently small electrode volume fluctuations,
wherein the crumpled graphene balls have a surface area of about 382 m 2 g −1 with a pore volume of about 1.823 cm 3 g −1 .

2. The host material of claim 1 , wherein the crumpled graphene balls are paper ball-like graphene particles and are in submicron sizes.

3. The host material of claim 1 , wherein the volumes and voids inside and in between the crumpled graphene balls are in submicron sizes.

4. The host material of claim 1 , wherein the crumpled graphene balls are resistant to aggregation or deformation.

5. The host material of claim 1 , wherein the crumpled graphene balls are lithiophilic with high Li diffusivity.

6. The host material of claim 1 , wherein the crumpled graphene balls are conductive and chemically and mechanically stable.

7. The host material of claim 1 , wherein in operation, Li ions are reversibly deposited or dissolved within the scaffold.

8. A lithium (Li) metal electrode, comprising:
a scaffold formed of a host material comprising crumpled graphene balls, defining volumes and voids inside and in between the crumpled graphene balls, so as to allow uniform and stable Li deposition/dissolution inside and in between the crumpled graphene balls without electrode volume fluctuations or with sufficiently small electrode volume fluctuations.

9. The Li metal electrode of claim 8 , wherein the volumes and voids inside and in between the crumpled graphene balls are in submicron sizes.

10. The Li metal electrode of claim 8 , wherein the crumpled graphene balls have a surface area of about 382 m 2 g −1 with a pore volume of about 1.823 cm 3 g −1 .

11. The Li metal electrode of claim 8 , wherein the crumpled graphene balls are resistant to aggregation or deformation.

12. The Li metal electrode of claim 8 , wherein the crumpled graphene balls are lithiophilic with high Li diffusivity.

13. The Li metal electrode of claim 8 , wherein the crumpled graphene balls are conductive and chemically and mechanically stable.

14. The Li metal electrode of claim 8 , wherein in operation, Li ions are reversibly deposited or dissolved within the scaffold.

15. An energy storage device, comprising a lithium (Li) metal electrode of claim 8 .

16. The energy storage device of claim 15 , wherein the scaffold is a conducting, lightweight and lithiophilic scaffold that operably stabilizes high loading of Li during cycling and avoids its dendritic filament growth.

17. The energy storage device of claim 15 , wherein the energy storage device has a performance with scalable Li loading up to about 10 mAh cm −2 for the Li metal electrode with a thickness of about 120 μm within tolerable volume fluctuation.

18. The energy storage device of claim 15 , wherein the energy storage device has a performance with a stable Coulombic efficiency of about 97.5% over about 750 cycles.

19. The energy storage device of claim 15 , wherein the energy storage device has a performance with plating/stripping Li up to about 12 mAh cm −2 on the Li metal electrode with a thickness of about 40 μm without dendrite growth.

20. The energy storage device of claim 15 , being a battery.

Assignees

• Univ Northwestern

Inventors

• Huang Jiaxing
• Luo Jiayan

Classifications

• C01P2006/14

  Pore volume · CPC title

• C01B32/184

  Preparation · CPC title

• C01P2004/62

  Submicrometer sized, i.e. from 0.1-1 micrometer · CPC title

• C01B2204/22

  Electronic properties · CPC title

• H01M4/587 Primary

  for inserting or intercalating light metals · CPC title