Zinc as a Promising Anodic Material for All-Solid-State Lithium-Ion Batteries

Electrochemical energy storage is considered a remarkable way to bridge the gap between demand and supply due to intermittent renewable energy production. All-solid-state batteries are an excellent alternative and are known to be the safest class of batteries. In the present scenario to accomplish the energy demands, high-capacity and stable anodes are warranted and can play a vital role in technology upgradation. Among the variety of anodes, alloying-type anodes are superior due to their high gravimetric capacity and stability. In the present work, zinc metal was implemented as electrode material in an all-solid-state lithium-ion battery. This anode material was tested with two different solid-state electrolytes, i.e., lithium borohydride (LiBH4) and halide-stabilized LiBH4 (i.e., LiBH4.LiI). In a coin cell, Li foil was placed as a counter electrode. The establishment of a reaction mechanism during the charging and discharging was obtained through X-ray diffraction (XRD) and cyclic voltammetry (CV). Systematic studies using the temperature dependence performance were also conducted. The volumetric density with both electrolytes was found at more than 3000 mAh/cm3. The coulombic efficiency for the electrode material was also observed at ~94%. These impressive numbers present zinc electrodes as a promising material for future electrode material for all-solid-state Li-ion batteries.