Enabling the Next Generation of High Energy Lithium-Ion Battery Cathodes

Abstract

Lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery chemistries have driven the portable electronics market for almost 25 years and are now poised to significantly impact the light-duty transportation and grid storage sectors as well. The versatility and proven record of Li-ion systems makes them an irresistible choice from a practical standpoint. However, each application continuously demands more from every new generation of battery products; the highly correlated parameters, energy, power, safety, cycle life, and cost, are constantly being pushed to their limits. Although much of the current effort in energy storage research is aimed at transformational gains, novel Li-ion systems, yet to be explored, have the potential of making continual and significant incremental impacts on next-generation technologies. This presentation will discuss insights into the atomic-level structure and transformation mechanisms of lithium-transition-metal-oxide cathode materials. These mechanisms explain, in part, the failure modes of layered cathodes at high states of delithiation. Furthermore, a discussion on a variety of elemental and structural compositions will be given. For example, unique layered, layered-layered, spinel, and layered-layered-spinel structures and chemistries will be presented that are pushing the boundaries of current Li-ion technology. Future directions and research in further enabling these new systems will also be discussed. Acknowledgment Support from the Vehicle Technologies Program, Hybrid and Electric Systems, in particular, David Howell, Peter Faguy, and Tien Duong at the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, is gratefully acknowledged. The submitted manuscript has been created by UChicago Argonne, LLC, Operator of Argonne National Laboratory (“Argonne”). Argonne, a U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science laboratory, is operated under Contract No. DE-AC02-06CH11357. The U.S. Government retains for itself, and others acting on its behalf, a paid-up, nonexclusive, irrevocable worldwide license in said article to reproduce, prepare derivative works, distribute copies to the public, and perform publicly and display publicly, by or on behalf of the Government.