Consisting of 14 European partners, the Horizon 2020 SOLiDIFY consortium announced the creation of a prototype lithium battery with a solid electrolyte, which surpassed classic lithium-ion batteries in energy density. In addition, the developers promise a simple and affordable process for mass production of new cells at room temperature, which is really important.
Image source: imec
The laboratory sample of the lithium metal solid-state battery is reported to store 1070 Wh/L of energy, which is significantly higher than the 800 Wh/L of modern lithium batteries. The new product achieved such indicators using a combination of a thick 100-μm NMC cathode (nickel, manganese and cobalt), which stores energy at a high density, separated from a thin metal lithium anode by a thin 20-μm layer of solid and non-flammable electrolyte.
The electrolyte is a liquid-to-solid polymer jointly developed by imec, Empa and SOLVIONIC. This is a special polymer that hardens during the battery manufacturing process, making the process relatively inexpensive and simple.
A prototype of the high-performance lithium metal solid-state battery was manufactured at the state-of-the-art EnergyVille battery laboratory in Belgium. According to representatives of the consortium, the cost of producing batteries with a capacity of 1 kWh will cost €150. At the same time, it will not be difficult to reconfigure modern lithium battery production lines to promising ones, the developers assure.
Unfortunately, the promising battery also has disadvantages, the main one being low durability. So far, only 100 recharge cycles are announced for the new product. In addition, it charges very slowly – up to 3 hours. This is unacceptable for a commercial battery, but the developers promise to work towards improving both one and the other indicator.