Team Solid State Batteries

The „Solid-State Batteries“ team develops ceramic-based cells and components for future electrochemical energy storage. Know-how ranges from new materials over conventional ceramic processing methods all the way to full battery cell manufacturing.

The Lithium-ion battery’s success story continues with the opening of new fields of application in electro-mobility and stationary energy storage. In established fields of application, requirements with respect to safety, energy and power density also increase steadily.

Research needs to accommodate this change with further development of existing technologies, but also the targeted investigation of new, disruptive concepts. In both cases, easy transferability of the results into industry needs to be a major goal. These three propositions are the basis of the work of the team “Solid-State Batteries” at IEK-1.

One option to enhance the safety as well as the energy and power density of future batteries is the shift from liquid or polymer electrolytes to ceramic ones. Research goal in this field is the development of high capacity cells, only containing solid state materials and working at room temperature. These cells are intrinsically safe since leakage and temperature stability are dealt with on a materials level, one promising ceramic electrolyte candidate being Li₇La₃Zr₂O₁₂ (LLZ). With layer thicknesses comparable to conventional Li-ion batteries, the focus of our research lies on synthesis of basic powders in large amounts, parts and components manufacturing and full cell assembly. Basis for this work is our deep know-how and large portfolio of ceramic synthesis and processing methods, allowing us to investigate a large array of material combinations and cell types.

We are able to widely adapt our cells to the specific needs of our partners in research and industry. Please feel free to contact us for more detailed information.

Research area
Li and Na batteries – ceramic ion conductors for next generation batteries

• All-solid-state batteries (electrolyte, mixed cathodes and anodes, half- and full-cells,…)
• Functional Components for Li-air and Li-S (anode protective coatings, Li-selective separators)

Methods:

• Large scale synthesis of ceramic powders (solid-state reaction, spray pyrolysis,...) and their processing (tape casting, screen printing, dip coating,…)
• Supplementary analysis based on x-rays, electrons, ions and neutrons (XRD, SEM, TEM, SIMS, RBS, NRA, nDiffr., QENS,…) and electrochemical techniques (EIS, CV, charge-discharge curves,…)