An Overview on Stabilized Lithium Metal Powder (SLMP), an Enabling Material for a New Generation of Li-Ion Batteries

Abstract

The current Li-ion battery technology has reached its maturity and incremental improvements in energy density can not meet the ever increasing demand for more energy and power for portable electronic applications.Stabilized Lithium Metal Powder (SLMP TM ) is an enabling material and technology that creates opportunities for more choices of active materials to be used in Liion batteries resulting in systems with improved performance in energy, safety and possibly cost. In this work we have discussed the initial results for lithium powder stability in selected solvents. Material has been incorporated into Li-ion cells and resultsindicate that SLMP could be used as an independent source of lithium. Examples of using SLMP to improve the first cycle efficiency in silicon composite material and of Li-ion cell built with non-lithium providing cathode, such as the first Li-ion battery fabricated with a metal fluoride, BiF 3, are discussed. Approaches for synthesis of tin and silicon nanocomposites are presented.

Pre‐Lithiation Strategies for Next‐Generation Practical Lithium‐Ion Batteries

“…[ 101 ] The improved dry‐air stability of SLMP is attributed to a protective layer of Li 2 CO 3 around the Li particles, and therefore a certain pressure to break up the Li 2 CO 3 coating is required for activating the SLMP. [ 102 ]…”

High-Power Na-Ion and K-Ion Hybrid Capacitors Exploiting Cointercalation in Graphite Negative Electrodes

“…However, it also significantly increases the specific surface area of the anode materials, leading to severe electrolyte decomposition to form the solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) and, consequently, yielding low initial Coulombic efficiency (ICE, commonly 30%–60%). − As a result, presodiation and prepotassiation of the anode are inevitably applied to compensate the irreversible capacity in the first cycle. For lithium systems, practical measures to compensate the first cycle inefficiency are available, but this is not the case for sodium and potassium systems, where only lab-scale procedures are available, which cannot be implemented in practical cell production. Therefore, the ideal strategy is to select or design large grain size anode materials with fast (de)­intercalation kinetics not requiring any preactivation processes …”

“…In this regard, microsized graphite offering highly reversible, durable, and fast cointercalation of glyme-solvated Na + or K + complex is a valuable option. In fact, its electrochemical behavior as negative electrode material for Na-ion or K-ion batteries has been investigated in detail. − Employing the 1 M NaCF 3 SO 3 /tetraglyme electrolyte, natural graphite was reported to deliver 102 mAh g –1 capacity at high specific current (10 A g –1 ), a retention up to 95% after 6000 cycles, and a Coulombic efficiency close to unity . More importantly, because of the large grain size (>10 μm) and low specific surface area (7.24 m 2 g –1 ), the electrode material achieved high ICE (∼90%) at a specific current of 0.1 A g –1 .…”

Structure‐Controlled Li Metal Electrodes for Post‐Li‐Ion Batteries: Recent Progress and Perspectives

“…[ 118–123 ] However, Li metal powders produced by DET are highly reactive toward residual vapor or oxygen even in inert gases and exhibit ductility. These problems can be solved by coating the surface of Li metal powder with Li 2 CO 3 , [ 124–126 ] LiF, [ 115,127,128 ] wax, [ 129,130 ] and ionic liquids [ 131 ] to improve stability and ductility.…”

“…Thin ceramic layer‐coated Li metal powders have been developed and marketed to assure the stability of Li metal powder during its storage and manufacturing, as exemplified by stabilized Li metal powder with a nanolevel Li 2 CO 3 coating (SLMP, FMC in the USA) [ 124–126 ] and LiF‐coated Li powder (Albemarle, former Rockwood Lithium in Germany). [ 127 ] Such protected Li metal powders allow Li metal powder electrodes to be fabricated by slurry coating in a dry room, as the protective ceramic layer prevents Li metal from contacting organic solvents, some binders, etc.…”