Ut-battelle, Inc.

Andrew S Westover

Nancy Johnston Dudney

Michael Naguib Abdelmalak

Sergiy Kalnaus

Andrew K Kercher

Max J Palmer

Xi Chen

A method for manufacturing an improved thin film composite solid electrolyte is provided. The method includes spray coating an aqueous suspension of ceramic particles onto a substrate to form a ceramic thin film. The film is sintered to form a porous ceramic structure having an interconnected necked morphology that defines cavities. The cavities are backfilled with an polymer electrolyte, for example a crosslinkable poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO)-based polymer electrolyte. The resulting thin film composite solid electrolyte is highly ionically conductive and mechanically robust with good manufacturability, particularly suitable for, but not limited to lithium metal batteries. The present method represents a departure from conventional mixing-then-casting methods and instead includes the fabrication of a solid electrolyte having a high ceramic volume fraction, high ionic conductivity, low thickness, and good chemical stability with metallic lithium.

Method of manufacturing a thin film composite solid electrolyte

A solid ionically conductive composition (e.g., nanoparticles of less than 1 micron or a continuous film) comprising at least one element selected from alkali metal, alkaline earth metal, aluminum, zinc, copper, and silver in combination with at least two elements selected from oxygen, sulfur, silicon, phosphorus, nitrogen, boron, gallium, indium, tin, germanium, arsenic, antimony, bismuth, transition metals, and lanthanides. Also described is a battery comprising an anode, a cathode, and a solid electrolyte (corresponding to the above ionically conductive composition) in contact with or as part of the anode and/or cathode. Further described is a thermal (e.g., plasma-based) method of producing the ionically conductive composition. Further described is a method for using an additive manufacturing (AM) process to produce an object constructed of the ionically conductive composition by use of particles of the ionically conductive composition as a feed material in the AM process.

Ionically conductive powders and films, and methods of preparation

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Oak Ridge, TN, United States of America

Andrew S Westover