Volume 136, Issue 31 e202402214
Forschungsartikel

Alumina – Stabilized SEI and CEI in Potassium Metal Batteries

Pengcheng Liu

Corresponding Author

Pengcheng Liu

Materials Science and Engineering Program & Texas Materials Institute (TMI), The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712–1591 USA

Contribution: Conceptualization (lead), Data curation (lead), Methodology (lead), Visualization (lead), Writing - original draft (lead), Writing - review & editing (equal)

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Hongchang Hao

Corresponding Author

Hongchang Hao

Materials Science and Engineering Program & Texas Materials Institute (TMI), The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712–1591 USA

Contribution: Data curation (supporting), Formal analysis (supporting)

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Aditya Singla

Aditya Singla

School of Mechanical Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907 USA

Contribution: Data curation (supporting), Software (supporting), Visualization (supporting)

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Bairav S. Vishnugopi

Bairav S. Vishnugopi

School of Mechanical Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907 USA

Contribution: Data curation (equal), Software (equal), Visualization (supporting), Writing - original draft (supporting)

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John Watt

John Watt

Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM 87545 USA

Contribution: Data curation (equal), Funding acquisition (supporting), Resources (equal)

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Partha P. Mukherjee

Partha P. Mukherjee

School of Mechanical Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907 USA

Contribution: Funding acquisition (supporting), Software (lead)

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David Mitlin

Corresponding Author

David Mitlin

Materials Science and Engineering Program & Texas Materials Institute (TMI), The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712–1591 USA

Contribution: Funding acquisition (lead), Project administration (lead), Supervision (lead), Writing - review & editing (lead)

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First published: 14 May 2024

Abstract

Aluminum oxide (Al2O3) nanopowder is spin-coated onto both sides of commercial polypropene separator to create artificial solid-electrolyte interphase (SEI) and artificial cathode electrolyte interface (CEI) in potassium metal batteries (KMBs). This significantly enhances the stability, including of KMBs with Prussian Blue (PB) cathodes. For example, symmetric cells are stable after 1,000 cycles at 0.5 mA/cm2–0.5 mAh/cm2 and 3.0 mA/cm2–0.5 mAh/cm2. Alumina modified separators promote electrolyte wetting and increase ionic conductivity (0.59 vs. 0.2 mS/cm) and transference number (0.81 vs. 0.23). Cryo-stage focused ion beam (cryo-FIB) analysis of cycled modified anode demonstrates dense and planar electrodeposits, versus unmodified baseline consisting of metal filaments (dendrites) interspersed with pores and SEI. Alumina-modified CEI also suppresses elemental Fe crossover and reduces cathode cracking. Mesoscale modeling of metal – SEI interactions captures crucial role of intrinsic heterogeneities, illustrating how artificial SEI affects reaction current distribution, conductivity and morphological stability.

Conflict of interests

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Data Availability Statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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