Improving Li-ion interfacial transport in hybrid solid electrolytes

The development of commercial solid-state batteries has to date been hindered by the individual limitations of inorganic and organic solid electrolytes, motivating hybrid concepts. However, the room-temperature conductivity of hybrid solid electrolytes is still insufficient to support the required battery performance. A key challenge is to assess the Li-ion transport over the inorganic and organic interfaces and relate this to surface chemistry. Here we study the interphase structure and the Li-ion transport across the interface of hybrid solid electrolytes using solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. In a hybrid solid polyethylene oxide polymer–inorganic electrolyte, we introduce two representative types of ionic liquid that have different miscibilities with the polymer. The poorly miscible ionic liquid wets the polymer–inorganic interface and increases the local polarizability. This lowers the diffusional barrier, resulting in an overall room-temperature conductivity of 2.47 × 10−4 S cm−1. A critical current density of 0.25 mA cm−2 versus a Li-metal anode shows improved stability, allowing cycling of a LiFePO4–Li-metal solid-state cell at room temperature with a Coulombic efficiency of 99.9%. Tailoring the local interface environment between the inorganic and organic solid electrolyte components in hybrid solid electrolytes seems to be a viable route towards designing highly conducting hybrid solid electrolytes. NMR measurements show that the interface between the inorganic and organic components can be tailored to design a highly conducting hybrid solid electrolyte.