Glasses and Glass-Ceramics for Solid-State Battery Applications

Abstract

This chapter reviews investigations carried out in the last decades to synthesize and characterize ion conducting glasses and glass-ceramics and further use them as solid electrolytes in all-solid-state batteries. First, the focus is put on materials, either Li+, Na+ or Ag+ conducting ones, with the most striking points being the discovery of ion conducting chalcogenide glasses in the 1980s, the elaboration of fast ion conducting glass-ceramics with the introduction of mechanical alloying techniques in the 1990s, and more recently the renewed interest in Na+ conducting glasses and glass-ceramics. The second part of the chapter focuses on the development of all-solid-state batteries, Li-ion and Li/S batteries and to a lesser extent Na+ and Ag+-ion batteries. It is shown that the performance of the batteries relies on the development of optimized composite electrodes comprising the electrolyte, an active material and a conductive additive. The review sheds light on the key parameters that have to be considered, including the choice of compositions of active material and conductive additive, coating of electrode by the electrolyte, coating of the electrolyte, ratio of the components, homogenization of the mixture and compaction of the powders.