Achievement

IGERT Fellow Jennifer Nugent has been synthesizing and characterizing new polymer-ceramic hybrid materials to be used as electrolytes in lithium metal batteries. Significant research efforts have focused on the development of a polymer electrolyte that has sufficient conductivity at room temperature and the mechanical strength to make lithium metal electrodes safe for commercial applications, as batteries based on this technology have high energy density. The hybrid electrolytes produced have a higher conductivity at room temperature than previously reported polymer electrolytes and a wide electrochemical window. Importantly, these hybrid electrolytes have highly tunable mechanical properties that may be optimized to deter uneven lithium plating. An optical cell has been developed with which to view lithium plating during battery operation as a method of evaluating the effect of electrolyte mechanical properties on cell safety.