Inorganic
solid-state electrolytes for lithium metal batteries
have attracted significant interest, but their brittle nature creates
a severe hurdle to widespread application in flexible electronics.
Herein, we propose the rational design of a flexible electrolyte membrane
with a tile-and-grout pattern in which garnet-type electrolyte tile-like
chips are joined together without gaps by styrene–butadiene
copolymer using additive manufacturing. The dimensions of the garnet
chips are optimized through fracture mechanics analysis, which effectively
suppresses the strain energy below the fracture toughness of the garnet
solid-state electrolyte, eliminating random cracking. The garnet chips
function as fast lithium-ion transport channels, while the styrene–butadiene
copolymer grid serves as a deformable buffer to further reduce the
stress transferred to the garnet chips. The tile-and-grout design
electrolyte membrane presents good flexibility and can be readily
bent without breaking. Our facile and pragmatic strategy presents
a new design principle for solid-state electrolytes to address the
brittleness issues.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.