The lithium-sulfur (Li-S) battery, with its high theoretical specific energy and low cost, is a potential contender to replace Li-ion batteries, particularly in electric vehicles. However, the practical implementation of the technology has been hindered due to the lack of suitable materials/electrode, durable electrolytes, and stable Li anode. This presentation will begin by discussing the challenges faced by actual pouch cells, then delve into the interactions between the cathode and the Li anode, and conclude with promising strategies for designing low-tortuosity dense cathodes, enhancing cell energy density and extending cell’s cycle life.

Alloying anodes have extraordinary promise for both lithium-ion and beyond lithium-ion batteries. However, challenges arise from the large volume expansion, leading to rapid capacity fading. Here, 3D current collector substrates (including copper silicide nanowires directly grown from copper), carbon cloth, and stainless steel mesh are used as supports for alloying anode materials Si (Li-ion), and Sb and Bi (K-ion), leading to stable capacity over extended cycles.

Advanced sodium-ion batteries can lower costs and overcome supply chain challenges of lithium-ion batteries. Through a breakthrough alloy anode innovation, the energy densities of sodium-ion batteries can be increased by a factor of 2x and eliminate battery safety hazards, offering competitive advantages in e-mobility and energy storage markets. This session will cover the state-of-the-art in commercial sodium-ion batteries, going beyond laboratory scale research and showcase unprecedented energy densities, performance and safety testing results of U.S. made commercial scale advanced sodium-ion batteries.

The application of silicon is rapidly transitioning from being a secondary active material used to enhance anode capacity to being a dominant component. This talk emphasizes the growing significance of silicon-based battery technology and its associated hurdles. It highlights AnteoTech's expertise in high-silicon anode and specialized binder innovations, offering the potential to enhance lithium-ion battery performance by optimizing the inactive material fraction of the anode.

Conventional wisdom tells us that nickel and cobalt are essential in high-energy electric vehicle batteries, but is it true? Here we introduce nickel-conscious, cobalt-free cathode materials leveraging high energies of layered oxides and excellent safety of olivine phosphates for automotive applications that cut reliance of nickel and cobalt without sacrificing major performance metrics. The future of EVs is long-range, more affordable, and cobalt-free.

Recently, all-solid-state LIBs for which electrolytes and all components are solids have been actively studied. Due to environmental changes to which battery component materials are subjected, studies to apply Fe-based metal foils having corrosion resistance and mechanical properties superior to those of conventional materials to current collectors have been actively conducted. My presentation outlines ultra-thin Fe-based metal foil for current collectors that have been studied to realize high-capacity, long-cycle-life LIBs.

In this talk, I will discuss imaging tools that are developed in our group to track the electrochemical reaction fronts (i.e., electrochemical deposition of lithium-metal), stress, and crack evolution in 3D during processing and cycling of solid-state lithium-metal batteries. We show that the crack formation and stress distribution in solid-state electrolytes are extremely sensitive to the preparation conditions, which, in turn, affect the electrochemical performance of batteries. Further, these imaging data can be combined with theoretical efforts to develop electromechanical models for SSBs.

Early theory for disordered matters usually suggests that disorder can be detrimental to ion/charge transport. More recently, several emerging works have indicated that in disordered materials, high ionic conductivity can be achieved by creating low energy barrier diffusion pathways with percolating local structures. Combined experimental and theoretical research will be demonstrated to showcase the great opportunities and design principles to turn disordered materials into superionic conductors.

Since a few years ago, Hydro-Quebec has decided to conduct specific research on all-solid ceramic batteries and especially sulfide-based ceramic electrolytes. The constraints of the use of li-ion equipment, cost reduction, and safety have been considered at each level with quantitative measurements. The different improvements in positive composite electrode, in solid electrolyte ceramic film, and in lithium metal interfaces will be explained with the demonstration of cycle life more than 500 cycles under industry-relevant pressure conditions at moderate temperature under pouch-cell configuration.

Fire hazards represent a major barrier to the widespread adoption of lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) in electric vehicles and energy storage systems. Although mitigating the flammability of carbonate electrolytes in LIBs is an obvious solution to the thermal safety issue, it often comes at the expense of battery performance and cost. I will present that molecular engineering of linear carbonates presents a viable route to improving the thermal stability of high-performance LIBs.

We investigate the solvation structures of some highly-concentrated solutions of metal chlorides as electrolytes to elucidate the correlations to enlarge the electrochemical stability window. We scrutinize strategies for using co-salts and co-solvents to tune the local structures. The results confirm that strong O–H bonds of water afford a wider stability window. In addition, we found that a chemical environment that frustrates the solvation of proton and hydroxide also inhibits water's electrolysis. Furthermore, we look into suppressing water's electrolysis by forming a solid-electrolyte interphase (SEI) to nearly shut down the parasitic reactions between Zn and water.

Feon Energy is building the enablers for next-generation lithium-ion and lithium-metal batteries. Our core technology features a suite of molecular-engineered, non-flammable liquid electrolytes using brand-new solvent and/or additive molecules that never existed in the past. In the presentation, we will show two product pipelines including molecular electrolytes for high-performance 4-5Ah, 400Wh/kg lithium-metal cells, and ultra-high-voltage advanced lithium-ion batteries.