LiNoO3 as a protective layer on LiCoO2 for solid state batteries

Batteries are constantly being used in our daily lives, from the phones we use to the cars we drive. Almost everything that is portable and electronic runs on batteries, but current lithium ion batteries have been a cause for safety concern, with many exploding. That is why we are working on all solid-state batteries that do not suffer from the safety issues. Their improved safety is from their lack of flammable liquid electrolyte and their use of sulfur compounds is what makes this possible. When using this solid electrolyte, it has been shown to react with the active cathode material in the cathode, which for our purposes is Lithium Cobalt Oxide or LCO for short. Therefore, the topic of my entire summer research is to properly coat the active cathode material in a protective layer, stopping the reaction between LCO and the sulfur electrolyte. To do this we tried an Atomic Layer Deposition machine and a wet chemical process in order to try and form a uniform protective layer over the LCO particle. Although not every coating process succeeded and some became even worse than a non-coated particle, eventually we were able to make a good enough coated particle that when used as the active cathode material it had exceedingly good cycling performance.