Investigation of Li-ion transport in Li7P3S11 and solid-state lithium batteries

The high Li-ion conductivity of the Li7P3S11 sulfide-based solid electrolyte makes it a promising candidate for all-solid-state lithium batteries. The Li-ion transport over electrode-electrolyte and electrolyte-electrolyte interfaces, vital for the performance of solid-state batteries, is investigated by impedance spectroscopy and solid-state NMR experiments. An all-solid-state Li-ion battery is assembled with the Li7P3S11 electrolyte, nano-Li2S cathode and Li-In foil anode, showing a relatively large initial discharge capacity of 1139.5 mAh/g at a current density of 0.064 mA/cm2 retaining 850.0 mAh/g after 30 cycles. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy suggests that the decrease in capacity over cycling is due to the increased interfacial resistance between the electrode and the electrolyte. 1D exchange 7Li NMR quantifies the interfacial Li-ion transport between the uncycled electrode and the electrolyte, resulting in a diffusion coefficient of 1.70(3)×10−14  cm2/s at 333 K and an energy barrier of 0.132 eV for the Li-ion transport between Li2S cathode and Li7P3S11 electrolyte. This indicates that the barrier for Li-ion transport over the electrode-electrolyte interface is small. However, the small diffusion coefficient for Li-ion diffusion between the Li2S and the Li7P3S11 suggests that these contact interfaces between electrode and electrolyte are relatively scarce, challenging the performance of these solid-state batteries.