High Energy and Power Density All-Solid-State Batteries: Opportunities and Challenges by Dr. Venkataraman Thangadurai

Location and Date: 
Friday, 31 July, 2019, 04:00 pm, Seminar Hall, Second Floor, DESE-CESE Building

 Abstract

Rechargeable lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) have received much attention due to their high volumetric and gravimetric energy densities and their wide range of applications. Advances towards LIBs with ceramic electrolytes have an ever-increasing attraction as an alternative to organic electrolytes due to their high energy density, long life span, and increased safety. Among the solid Li-ion electrolytes, Li-garnets are deemed a very promising candidate because of its high ionic conductivity (~ 1 mS cm-1) at room temperature. The chemical and electrochemical stability of lithium-based garnets against moisture/humidity, aqueous solutions, carbon dioxide, sulfur, and metallic lithium are analyzed.1 The application of Li-garnet is still hampered by its interfacial resistance against electrodes. In order to reduce the ASR of the Li/garnet interface, we devised a surfactant-processed interlayer for ceramic electrolytes (SPICE) method to deposit a uniform metal oxide layer onto garnet that improves the wetting of Li and effectively reduce the interfacial resistance.2 This wet-chemistry method is facile and scalable which has the potential for mass production. Stable Li plating/stripping at current densities up to 0.5 mA cm−2 was conducted, demonstrating a compelling strategy to solve the Li/solid electrolyte interface problem in all-solid-state Li batteries.Following the prevalence of LIBs, the world is looking toward alternative, cost-effective electrical energy storage systems. Sodium-based batteries are very promising as they possess similar chemistry with lithium but exhibit much higher elemental abundance. Current development of solid-state crystalline borate- and chalcogenide-based Na-ion conductors is discussed together with historically important Na-β -alumina and Na superionic conductors (NASICONs). Engineering a ceramic Na-ion electrolyte and electrode interface can be achieved with ionic liquids, polymers, gels, crystalline plastics interlayers, and other interfacial modification strategies.3
 
 
References
 
1. Hofstetter, K.; Samson, A.; Narayanan, S.; Thangadurai, V. J Power Sources 2018, 390, 297-312.
2. Zhou, C.; Samson, A.; Hofstetter, K.; Thangadurai, V. Sustainable Energy & Fuels 2018, 2, 2165-2170.
3. Zhou, C.; Bag, S.; Thangadurai, V. ACS Energy Lett. 2018, 3, 2181-2198.
 
Biography: Dr. Venkataraman Thangadurai is full professor of chemistry at the University of Calgary, Canada. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, United Kingdom. He received his PhD from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India in 1999 and did his PDF at the University of Kiel, Germany. He received a prestigious PDF fellowship from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Bonn, Germany. In 2004, Dr. Thangadurai received his Habilitation degree from the University of Kiel. His current research activities include discovery of novel ceramic membranes and mixed ion and electron conductors for all-solid-state-Li batteries, solid oxide fuel cells, solid oxide electrolysis cells, and electrochemical gas sensors. He has published >175 scientific papers in international refereed journals. In 2016, he received the prestigious Keith Laidler Award from the Canadian Society of Chemistry for his outstanding contributions to physical chemistry.