Toward an Understanding of SEI Formation and Lithium Plating on Copper in Anode-Free Batteries.

"Anode-free" batteries present a significant advantage due to their substantially higher energy density and ease of assembly in a dry air atmosphere. However, issues involving lithium dendrite growth and low cycling Coulombic efficiencies during operation remain to be solved. Solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) formation on Cu and its effect on Li plating are studied here to understand the interplay between the Cu current collector surface chemistry and plated Li morphology. A native interphase layer (N-SEI) on the Cu current collector was observed with solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (ssNMR) and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). Cyclic voltammetry (CV) and time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS) studies showed that the nature of the N-SEI is affected by the copper interface composition. An X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) study identified a relationship between the applied voltage and SEI composition. In addition to the typical SEI components, the SEI contains copper oxides (Cu x O) and their reduction reaction products. Parasitic electrochemical reactions were observed via in situ NMR measurements of Li plating efficiency. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) studies revealed a correlation between the morphology of the plated Li and the SEI homogeneity, current density, and rest time in the electrolyte before plating. Via ToF-SIMS, we found that the preferential plating of Li on Cu is governed by the distribution of ionically conducting rather than electronic conducting compounds. The results together suggest strategies for mitigating dendrite formation by current collector pretreatment and controlled SEI formation during the first battery charge.

Oxygen transport and surface exchange mechanisms in LSCrF-ScCeSZ dual-phase ceramics.

For the mechanisms by which the oxygen gets incorporated in a dual-phase composite system, three hypotheses, i.e. cation inter-diffusion, spillover type and self-cleaning of the perovskite-structured phase, have been provided in the literature. However, experimentally a consensus on the most likely mechanism is yet to be reached. In this work, a specially fused sample of the lanthanum strontium chromium ferrite (LSCrF)-scandia/ceria-stabilised zirconia (ScCeSZ) dual-phase material was investigated. Among the three potential mechanisms, no obvious cation inter-diffusion was firstly observed. A cleaner surface of the ScCeSZ phase was confirmed in the fused sample than in the isolated ScCeSZ single-phase sample while impurity layers were clearly observed on the LSCrF surface, suggesting the cleaning effect from the perovskite. However, more evidence implies that the cleaning effect is not the only reason for the synergistic effects between these two phases. Observations via SIMS analysis lend strong support to the 'spillover-type' mechanism as the oxygen isotopic fraction on the surface of the ScCeSZ increased compared to the isolated single-phase and as the distance to the heterojunction increases, the oxygen isotopic fraction decreases. Moreover, oxygen depleted layers were clearly seen on the top layers of the LSCrF surface which may be associated with the higher oxygen diffusivity in the surface/sub-surface layers, oxygen grain boundary fast diffusion and the impurities on the perovskite phase. For this sample, a combination of 'spillover' and 'self-cleaning' type mechanisms is suggested to be the potential possibility while the contribution from the cation inter-diffusion for this specific sample is proven to be low.

Electrical conductivity and oxygen diffusion behaviour of the (La0.8Sr0.2)0.95CrxFe1-xO3-δ (x = 0.3, 0.5 and 0.7) A-site deficient perovskites.

Lanthanum strontium chromite ferrite ((La0.8Sr0.2)0.95CrxFe1-xO3-δ, LSCrF) pellets with 5% A-site deficiency were fabricated and the electrical conductivity and oxygen diffusion behaviour with different Cr substitution levels (x = 0.3, 0.5 and 0.7) were investigated. As the Cr content increased, the electrical conductivity increased and then a maximum value was achieved at x = 0.7. In the oxygen diffusion studies, all the measured materials present good surface exchange rates (>9 × 10-8 cm s-1 at 900 °C) while the bulk diffusivity of the investigated materials decreased as the Cr substitution level increased: at 900 °C the oxygen diffusion coefficients of the LSCrF materials (x = 0.3, 0.5 and 0.7) are 1.1 × 10-10 cm2 s-1, 3.7 × 10-12 cm2 s-1 and 8.6 × 10-13 cm2 s-1, respectively. Oxygen diffusion in the perovskite materials (LSCrF) is shown to be bulk diffusion limited and it was found that analysis on this type of material using the line scan mode in Time-of-Flight Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry may result in significant underestimation of the surface exchange coefficient due to the oxygen saturation, while the depth profile mode provides more reliable results but the obtained surface exchange coefficients may also only reach a lower limit. Moreover, fast grain boundary diffusion behaviour was observed in the LSCrF (x = 0.7) material and the Le Claire, and Chung and Wuensch approximations were applied to analyse the oxygen diffusion profiles. For this material, the two approximations provided similar results for the grain boundary product (Dgbδ) and under the assumption that the width of a grain boundary is on the nanometre scale, the oxygen diffusion coefficient of the grain boundaries was about 3-4 orders of magnitude higher than that of the bulk at temperatures ≤900 °C.