Superior Fast‐Charging Lithium‐Ion Batteries Enabled by the High‐Speed Solid‐State Lithium Transport of an Intermetallic Cu<sub>6</sub>Sn<sub>5</sub> Network
Lei‐Lei Lu, Zheng‐Xin Zhu, Tao Ma, Te Tian, Huanxin Ju, Xiuxia Wang, Jin‐Lan Peng, Hong‐Bin Yao, Shu‐Hong Yu
Abstract
Abstract Superior fast charging is a desirable capability of lithium‐ion batteries, which can make electric vehicles a strong competition to traditional fuel vehicles. However, the slow transport of solvated lithium ions in liquid electrolytes is a limiting factor. Here, a Li x Cu 6 Sn 5 intermetallic network is reported to address this issue. Based on electrochemical analysis and X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy mapping, it is demonstrated that the reported intermetallic network can form a high‐speed solid‐state lithium transport matrix throughout the electrode, which largely reduces the lithium‐ion‐concentration polarization effect in the graphite anode. Employing this design, superior fast‐charging graphite/lithium cobalt oxide full cells are fabricated and tested under strict electrode conditions. At the charging rate of 6 C, the fabricated full cells show a capacity of 145 mAh g −1 with an extraordinary capacity retention of 96.6%. In addition, the full cell also exhibits good electrochemical stability at a high charging rate of 2 C over 100 cycles (96.0% of capacity retention) in comparison to traditional graphite‐anode‐based cells (86.1% of capacity retention). This work presents a new strategy for fast‐charging lithium‐ion batteries on the basis of high‐speed solid‐state lithium transport in intermetallic alloy hosts.