Exploiting self-heat in a lithium metal battery for dendrite healing

Hundekar, Prateek; Basu, Sugato; Pan, Jiao-Long; Bartolucci, Stephen F.; Narayanan, Shankar; Yang, Zhenyu; Koratkar, Nikhil

doi:10.1016/j.ensm.2019.04.013

Cited by 52 publications

(42 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…It is generally accepted that a higher current density (i.e., faster charge/discharge) would promote dendritic growth, since the diffusion-limited aggregation of dendrites should be favored under such conditions. In previous work (19,20) on Limetal systems, we demonstrated that this is not always the case. In particular, we demonstrated a distinct regime in which the Significance Historically, battery self-heating has been viewed negatively as an undesirable attribute.…”

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confidence: 67%

“…Similar calculations were also performed for self-diffusion of Li. Further, we look at an Arrhenius picture to investigate K surface diffusion as a temperature-activated process and compare the results to that of Li (20). Our theoretical study reveals that the activation barrier for surface diffusion in K (∼0.1 eV) is significantly lower than that in Li (∼0.15 eV).…”

mentioning

confidence: 94%

“…To uncover the mechanism as to why K dendrites heal much easier than Li, we used first-principles density-functional theory (DFT) calculations to estimate the extent of surface diffusion of K metal atoms by calculating activation energy barriers for surface diffusion via hopping and exchange diffusion mechanisms (20). Similar calculations were also performed for self-diffusion of Li.…”

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confidence: 99%

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In situ healing of dendrites in a potassium metal battery

Hundekar

Basu

Fan

et al. 2020

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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The use of potassium (K) metal anodes could result in high-performance K-ion batteries that offer a sustainable and low-cost alternative to lithium (Li)-ion technology. However, formation of dendrites on such K-metal surfaces is inevitable, which prevents their utilization. Here, we report that K dendrites can be healed in situ in a K-metal battery. The healing is triggered by current-controlled, self-heating at the electrolyte/dendrite interface, which causes migration of surface atoms away from the dendrite tips, thereby smoothening the dendritic surface. We discover that this process is strikingly more efficient for K as compared to Li metal. We show that the reason for this is the far greater mobility of surface atoms in K relative to Li metal, which enables dendrite healing to take place at an order-of-magnitude lower current density. We demonstrate that the K-metal anode can be coupled with a potassium cobalt oxide cathode to achieve dendrite healing in a practical full-cell device.

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confidence: 67%

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confidence: 94%

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confidence: 99%

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In situ healing of dendrites in a potassium metal battery

Hundekar

Basu

Fan

et al. 2020

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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“…However, once the uncontrollable dendrite occurs, the negative feedback cycle (SEI broken, dendrite worsen and so on) that follows would cause Li metal anode's failure quickly. To overcome such problem, healable anodes are rising recently to suppress inducing-dendrite issues, by the methods such as optimized charge distribution or thermodynamic nucleation (Huang et al, 2018;Hundekar et al, 2019;Zhu et al, 2019). Ding et al proposed healable Li metal anode via Cs + additive with electrostatic shield mechanism (Ding et al, 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Synchronous Healing of Li Metal Anode via Asymmetrical Bidirectional Current

Wang

Qin

et al. 2020

iScience

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The creation of Li metal anodes while minimizing dendrite growth is an important challenge for developing high-energy density batteries. Dendrites can originate from an inhomogeneous charge distribution or an irregular substrate, and often, the way to suppress dendrite growth is to avoid their formation altogether (ion-uniform mechanism over a shelf time). Herein, we propose a different route to eliminate dendrite formation, called an asymmetrical bidirectional current mode (ABCM) of charging, leading to a healable Li metal anode and resulting in a positive feedback cycle. This mode allows for a stable cyclic performance and suppresses dendrite formation effectively (while holding the polarization $27 mV for over 1,000 h), and provides a better result than suppressing Li dendrites via weakening of the Li dendrite (ion-uniform mechanism). These results indicate that ABCM may be a promising way to stabilize the Li anode of Li metal batteries, without any chemical/physical modification of the anode.

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“…Hundekar et al showed that even this negative attribute, if controlled properly, can be used to smooth dendrites. 114,115 More surprisingly, they discovered that the self-healing process in K anode is more efficient than that in Li metal. The underlying reason for this behavior was revealed by detailed DFT calculations, which is ascribed to the greater mobility and lower energy barriers of surface K atoms relative to Li metal atoms ( Figure 6B-F), thus enabling self-healing of K dendrites to take place at an order-of-magnitude lower current density.…”

Section: Self-healingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Potassium‐sulfur batteries: Status and perspectives

Zhao

Lü

Qian

et al. 2020

EcoMat

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This review article aims to provide insight into the research status of the potassium‐sulfur (K‐S) system, feature the challenges facing this technology, and present possible research directions for the realization of its practical applications. We begin with an introduction to the fundamental electrochemistry of K‐S batteries and emphasize the distinctions between K‐S technology and the well‐established lithium‐sulfur (Li‐S) system. Then, we focus on the development of the materials involved in K‐S batteries in terms of cathodes, K anodes, and various electrolyte systems. Finally, we provide several possible research directions to make the K‐S system a reality, with the emphasis, from our point of view, on the attempts to construct practical parameters for K‐S batteries by adopting the critical metrics of the current Li‐S system.

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Exploiting self-heat in a lithium metal battery for dendrite healing

Cited by 52 publications

References 29 publications

In situ healing of dendrites in a potassium metal battery

In situ healing of dendrites in a potassium metal battery

Synchronous Healing of Li Metal Anode via Asymmetrical Bidirectional Current

Potassium‐sulfur batteries: Status and perspectives

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