title: Superior Conductive Solid-like Electrolytes: Nanoconfining Liquids within the Hollow Structures.
abstract: The growth and proliferation of lithium (Li) dendrites during cell recharge are currently unavoidable, which seriously hinders the development and application of rechargeable Li metal batteries. Solid electrolytes with robust mechanical modulus are regarded as a promising approach to overcome the dendrite problems. However, their room-temperature ionic conductivities are usually too low to reach the level required for normal battery operation. Here, a class of novel solid electrolytes with liquid-like room-temperature ionic conductivities (>1 mS cm(-1)) has been successfully synthesized by taking advantage of the unique nanoarchitectures of hollow silica (HS) spheres to confine liquid electrolytes in hollow space to afford high conductivities (2.5 mS cm(-1)). In a symmetric lithium/lithium cell, the solid-like electrolytes demonstrate a robust performance against the Li dendrite problem, preventing the cell from short circuiting at current densities ranging from 0.16 to 0.32 mA cm(-2) over an extended period of time. Moreover, the high flexibility and compatibility of HS nanoarchitectures, in principle, enables broad tunability to choose desired liquids for the fabrication of other kinds of solid-like electrolytes, such as those containing Na(+), Mg(2+), or Al(3+) as conductive media, providing a useful alternative strategy for the development of next generation rechargeable batteries.
authors.forename: Jinshui
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: ∇Key Laboratory of Photovoltaic Materials of Henan Province and School of Physics and Electronics, Henan University, Kaifeng 475004, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Ying
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Bai
authors.forename: Xiao-Guang
authors.initials: XG
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.forename: Yunchao
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: ∥Texas Materials Institute, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712, United States.
authors.forename: Bingkun
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.forename: Jihua
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Gabriel M
authors.initials: GM
authors.lastname: Veith
authors.forename: Dale K
authors.initials: DK
authors.lastname: Hensley
authors.forename: Mariappan Parans
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: Paranthaman
authors.affiliation: ∥Texas Materials Institute, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712, United States.
authors.forename: John B
authors.initials: JB
authors.lastname: Goodenough
authors.forename: Sheng
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Dai
keywords: Li dendrite; hollow nanoarchitecture; nanoconfinement; solid-like electrolyte; superior conductivity