High rate-induced structural changes in thin-film lithium batteries on flexible substrate

Abstract An investigation is made of the high-rate capability (up to 10 C) of all-solid-state thin-film lithium batteries that comprise of Li/LiPON/LiCoO 2 on a flexible substrate, as well as of the effect of high-rate cycling on the structure of these batteries. Raman spectroscopic analysis results reveal that an increase in the rate promotes film orientation of the LiCoO 2 cathode with (1 0 1)/(1 0 4) planes and limited lithium intercalation and deintercalation within the layered hexagonal structure without a phase transition to monoclinic. Although with high-rate cycling the LiCoO 2 columnar grains tend to aggregate and lose grain orientation, as observed by scanning electron microscopic imaging, the film morphology is efficiently preserved when there is exterior multilayered encapsulation on thin-film batteries. Encapsulated thin-film batteries at 10 C show excellent capacity retention of 95% over 800 cycles, delivering > 22 μAh cm −2 μm −1 . The data contribute to a basic understanding of the structure–rate performance relationship of all-solid-state battery systems.