Lithium-Ion-Conducting Ceramics-Coated Separator for Stable Operation of Lithium Metal-Based Rechargeable Batteries

Abstract

Lithium metal anode is regarded as the ultimate negative electrode material due to its high theoretical capacity and low electrochemical potential. However, the significantly high reac-tivity of Li metal limits the practical application of Li metal batteries. To improve the stability of the interface between Li metal and an electrolyte, a facile and scalable blade coating method was used to cover the commercial polyethylene membrane separator with an inorganic/organic composite solid electrolyte layer containing lithium-ion-conducting ceramic fillers. The coated separator sup-pressed the interfacial resistance between the Li metal and the electrolyte and consequently pro-longed the cycling stability of deposition/dissolution processes in Li/Li symmetric cells. Further-more, the effect of the coating layer on the discharge/charge cycling performance of lithium-oxygen batteries was investigated.