Chicago, USA - Researchers at the University of Chicago's Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering, in collaboration with Thermo Fisher Scientific, have discovered that manipulating the texture of metals like lithium and sodium can significantly enhance battery performance. The study, published in the journal Joule, reveals that optimizing metal texture can improve a battery's rate capability by nearly ten times in all-solid-state batteries using lithium metal.
The ideal texture for a battery anode allows atoms to move quickly along the surface plane, facilitating faster charging and discharging. The team found that adding a thin layer of silicon between lithium metal and the current collector helped create the desired texture. This was achieved by coupling milling within a plasma focused ion beam-scanning electron microscope (PFIB-SEM) with electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) mapping.
The research team is now partnering with LG Energy Solution's Frontier Research Laboratory to commercialize the technology. Future research will focus on reducing the pressure used during testing to meet industry standards and exploring the impact of texture on sodium, a potential alternative to lithium. According to researchers, using sodium as the battery's anode in all-solid-state batteries could lead to a significant breakthrough in future energy storage.