NU 2022-034

INVENTORS
Cory M. Thomas West
Woo Jin Hyun
Mark C. Hersam*

SHORT DESCRIPTION 
A new blade-coatable ionogel electrolyte that enables high energy density solid-state lithium metal batteries with excellent cycling stability and rate performance

ABSTRACT
Northwestern researchers have developed a new approach to address critical scalability issues for ionogel electrolyte production for solid-state lithium metal batteries.  This technology is a blade-coatable ionogel electrolyte formulation based on hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) nanoplatelets, which are used as a gelation matrix for ionic liquids. The resulting hBN ionogel electrolyte has blade-coatable rheological properties, including a stable combination of lithium metal anode with excellent cycling performance, compatibility with existing lithium-ion battery manufacturing infrastructure, high room-temperature ionic conductivities (> 1 mS cm^-1), applicability over a wide area in a thin (< 40 μm) and crack-free film, and high-quality interfacial contact with cathode composite electrodes. This unique technique may be applied to high energy density solid-state lithium metal batteries, which have an enormous potential for replacing lithium-ion batteries, particularly in markets for next-generation energy storage technologies for electric vehicles, grid-level energy storage, and portable electronic devices.

APPLICATIONS 

• Solid-state batteries
• High energy density lithium metal batteries
• Printed electronics 

ADVANTAGES  

• Stability against lithium metal anodes 
• Excellent cycling stability
• High room-temperature ionic conductivity
• Applicability over a wide area in a thin (< 40 μm) and crack-free film
• High-quality interfacial contact with cathodes

PUBLICATION
Thomas, C. M., Hyun, W. J., Huang, H. C., Zeng, D., & Hersam, M. C. (2022). Blade-Coatable Hexagonal Boron Nitride Ionogel Electrolytes for Scalable Production of Lithium Metal Batteries. ACS Energy Letters, 7(4), 1558-1565.

IP STATUS
US patent applications have been filed.

Schematic illustration of the blade-coating procedure with hBN ionogel electrolyte.