Impact of Li3BO3 Addition on Solid Electrode-Solid Electrolyte Interface in All-Solid-State Batteries

Abstract

All-solid-state lithium-ion batteries raise the issue of high resistance at the interface between solid electrolyte and electrode materials that needs to be addressed. The article investigates the effect of a low-melting Li3BO3 additive introduced into LiCoO2- and Li4Ti5O12-based composite electrodes on the interface resistance with a Li7La3Zr2O12 solid electrolyte. According to DSC analysis, interaction in the studied mixtures with Li3BO3 begins at 768 and 725 °C for LiCoO2 and Li4Ti5O12, respectively. The resistance of half-cells with different contents of Li3BO3 additive after heating at 700 and 720 °C was studied by impedance spectroscopy in the temperature range of 25–340 °C. It was established that the introduction of 5 wt% Li3BO3 into LiCoO2 and heat treatment at 720 °C led to the greatest decrease in the interface resistance from 260 to 40 Ω cm2 at 300 °C in comparison with pure LiCoO2. An SEM study demonstrated that the addition of the low-melting component to electrode mass gave better contact with ceramics. It was shown that an increase in the annealing temperature of unmodified cells with Li4Ti5O12 led to a decrease in the interface resistance. It was found that the interface resistance between composite anodes and solid electrolyte had lower values compared to Li4Ti5O12|Li7La3Zr2O12 half-cells. It was established that the resistance of cells with the Li4Ti5O12/Li3BO3 composite anode annealed at 720 °C decreased from 97.2 (x = 0) to 7.0 kΩ cm2 (x = 5 wt% Li3BO3) at 150 °C.