Effects of Lithium Metal Storage Environment on Its Reactivity Toward Polyethylene Oxide-Based Blend Electrolytes
Authors: Costalin Mehdi , Rousselot Steeve , Lepage David , Foran Gabrielle , Prébé Arnaud , Aymé-Perrot David , Dolle Mickael 
Published: August 2024

Lithium metal has generated significant interest as an anode material because of its high theoretical capacity (3860 mAh/g). However, issues such as dendrite growth and lithium loss during cycling make this material incompatible with current liquid electrolytes. Solid polymer electrolytes (SPE) have been proposed as a potential replacement as they are non-flammable, able to resist dendrite growth, have decent ionic conductivity and good interfacial contact with lithium metal.

One aspect that is often overlooked is the fact that passivation layers, initially reported by Naudin et Al (1), often form on the lithium metal surface and are hence intrinsic to the chemical composition of the lithium surface (2, 3). According to Otto et Al (4), residual quantities of atmospheric gases are often present in lithium metal storage environments, thus electrode surface modification is inevitable. This passivation layer is expected to impact the reactivity of the lithium metal anode (LMA) towards SPE. Moreover, such phenomenon was originally described by Peled et Al as the solid electrolyte interface (SEI) (5). Lithium metal reactivity towards PEO, suspected by Galluzo et Al (6), was recently reported by Liu et Al (7), under optimized conditions (ultra-thin neat materials), but the impact of this phenomenon in a realistic LMA environment has not been extensively investigated.

In this study, the impact of gas exposure on a LMA was investigated by exposing freshly cut lithium rods to O2, CO2 and N2. The resultant passivation layers were characterized via XPS. The effect of passivation layer formation on LMA reactivity towards SPE was measured by exposing samples with pre-characterized passivation layers to common SPE materials. The resultant interface was characterized using Raman spectroscopy. SPE-passivation layer reactivity was correlated to ageing properties by EIS and kinetic charge transfer characteristics in galvanostatic linear polarization at the LMA-SPE interface, in a symmetric Li – SPE – Li stack.

This study revealed that the chemical composition of the lithium metal passivation layer affects its reactivity towards SPE as well as the electrochemical performance of a Li-SPE-Li symmetric cell. A thorough characterization of the lithium metal passivation layer is essential for the understanding of some of the fundamental factors affecting all solid-state lithium metal battery performance and is therefore consubstantial with the development of modified LMA.

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