To enable a renewable energy future, electrochemical energy storage remains as one of the main challenges of today’s society. Lithium-ion batteries have been shown to be of great potential in that respect, but they still suffer from safety instabilities arising from the use of flammable liquid electrolytes. Solid electrolytes are an interesting alternative that provide the required safety properties. We introduce a highly stable solid single-ion diblock copolymer electrolyte poly(deuterated styrene)-block-poly(poly(ethylene glycol) methyl ether styrene-co-lithium styrene sulfonyl(trifluoromethane sulfonyl)imide), denoted PS(d)-b-P(SPEG-co-STFSILi). Lithium metal batteries based on PS(d)-b-P(SPEG-co-STFSILi) are probed in operando with small-angle neutron scattering in order to investigate their suitability as safe batteries using lithium metal anodes. We compare cell operation when cycling at 0.5 C at 80 °C to 0.7 C at 90 °C, which represent severe working conditions for the battery. More than 200 cycles are performed, showing the inflation of the ionic pathways through cycling at 0.7 C, whereas at 0.5 C and 80 °C, battery performance and morphology remain unchanged.

中文翻译：

---

锂金属电池单离子共聚物电解质的Operando小角中子散射研究

为了实现可再生能源的未来，电化学储能仍然是当今社会的主要挑战之一。锂离子电池在这方面已显示出巨大的潜力，但是由于使用易燃的液体电解质，它们仍然遭受安全不稳定的困扰。固体电解质是提供所需安全特性的有趣替代方法。我们引入一个高度稳定的固体单离子二嵌段共聚物电解质聚（氘化苯乙烯） -嵌段-聚（聚（乙二醇）甲基醚苯乙烯-共-锂苯乙烯磺酰基（三氟甲磺酰）亚胺），表示为PS（d） - b -P（SPEG- co -STFSILi）。基于PS（d）-b -P（SPEG-为了研究它们是否适合用作使用锂金属阳极的安全电池，对co- STFSILi）进行了小角度中子散射操作。我们比较了在80°C的0.5 C和90°C的0.7 C循环时的电池操作，这代表了电池的严苛工作条件。进行了200多个循环，显示了在0.7 C循环中离子途径的膨胀，而在0.5 C和80°C时，电池性能和形态保持不变。