Quasi-solid electrolyte developed on hierarchical rambutan-like γ-AlOOH microspheres with high ionic conductivity for lithium ion batteries

Abstract

Upgrading liquid electrolytes with all-solid-state electrolytes (ASEs) or quasi-solid-state electrolytes (QSEs) for solid-state batteries (SBs) have emerged not only to address the intrinsic disadvantages of traditional liquid lithium ion batteries, but also to offer more possibilities for the development of new battery chemistries. In this work, a novel rambutan-like yolk–shell-structured porous γ-AlOOH microsphere with a large specific surface area of 262.92 m² g⁻¹ was firstly obtained by a simple hydrothermal synthesis route, which was then utilized as a robust framework to assemble QSE via encapsulating abundant liquid electrolyte (LE). The obtained γ-AlOOH-QSE exhibits a high ionic conductivity of 4.0 × 10⁻³ S cm⁻¹, a large lithium ion transference number (t_Li⁺) of 0.76, as well as a wide electrochemical window of 4.72 V vs. Li/Li⁺. Moreover, the assembled cell of LiFePO₄/γ-AlOOH-QSE/Li could maintain a high specific capacity of 144.4 mA h g⁻¹ even after 120 cycles with almost negligible capacity decay, which could be mainly attributed to the excellent interfacial compatibility, prominent performance in suppressing lithium dendrite growth upon cycling (rigid characteristic), as well as the high ionic conductivity of γ-AlOOH-QSE (intrinsic advantage). This work could not only expand the applications of QSE with cost-effective aluminum-based oxides with facile fabrication strategy, but also will shed light on the construction of SEs with more integrated QSEs and ASEs in the field of advanced energy storage.