Elevated-Temperature 3D Printing of Hybrid Solid-State Electrolyte for Li-Ion Batteries

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

9-26-2018

Department

Department of Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics

Abstract

While 3D printing of rechargeable batteries has received immense interest in advancing the next generation of 3D energy storage devices, challenges with the 3D printing of electrolytes still remain. Additional processing steps such as solvent evaporation were required for earlier studies of electrolyte fabrication, which hindered the simultaneous production of electrode and electrolyte in an all-3D-printed battery. Here, a novel method is demonstrated to fabricate hybrid solid-state electrolytes using an elevated-temperature direct ink writing technique without any additional processing steps. The hybrid solid-state electrolyte consists of solid poly(vinylidene fluoride-hexafluoropropylene) matrices and a Li+-conducting ionic-liquid electrolyte. The ink is modified by adding nanosized ceramic fillers to achieve the desired rheological properties. The ionic conductivity of the inks is 0.78 × 10 −3 S cm−1. Interestingly, a continuous, thin, and dense layer is discovered to form between the porous electrolyte layer and the electrode, which effectively reduces the interfacial resistance of the solid-state battery. Compared to the traditional methods of solid-state battery assembly, the directly printed electrolyte helps to achieve higher capacities and a better rate performance. The direct fabrication of electrolyte from printable inks at an elevated temperature will shed new light on the design of all-3D-printed batteries for next-generation electronic devices.

Publisher's Statement

© 2018 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim. Publisher’s version of record: https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.201800615

Publication Title

Advanced Materials

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