Surface modification of garnet with amorphous SnO atomic layer deposition

• Published in: Journal of materials chemistry. A, Materials for energy and sustainability Materials for energy and sustainability, 2020-09, Vol.8 (35), p.1887-1893
• Main Authors: Tang, Bin, Gao, Longxue, Liu, Junqing, Bo, Shou-Hang, Xie, Zhaojun, Wei, Jinping, Zhou, Zhen
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 2050-7488; 2050-7496
• DOI: 10.1039/c9ta13347j

In recent years, with the wide application of lithium ion batteries, severe safety problems of organic electrolytes have been exposed. The high reliability and safety of solid electrolytes make them an appealing choice to replace organic electrolytes. A cubic phase garnet-type solid electrolyte, Li 7 La 2.75 Ca 0.25 Zr 1.75 Nb 0.25 O 12 with high ionic conductivity at room temperature and wide electrochemical stability window arouses extensive attention. However, its large interfacial resistance associated with lithium ion transport hampers the practical application of this material to real battery systems. To solve this issue, we sputtered an amorphous SnO 2 layer onto the surface of the solid electrolyte via atomic layer deposition to reduce interfacial resistance. Also, the existence of the amorphous SnO 2 layer prevents interface reactions of garnet with metallic lithium, which greatly improves the cycling stability of Li/garnet/Li symmetric cells. We believe that atomic layer deposition is an effective strategy to improve the electrochemical performance of solid-state lithium metal batteries, and can be extended to other alkali and alkaline earth metal batteries. We sputter amorphous SnO 2 layer onto the surface of solid electrolytes via atomic layer deposition, which reduces interfacial resistance, prevents interface reactions with metallic lithium and provides high stability for long cycling.