September 2024 Vacuum Deposition Blog
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September 16, 2024
Researchers Accelerate the Development of Thin Films for Enhanced Battery Performance  
Researchers from Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) are looking to advance battery performance by developing a new thin separator film made with solid state electrolytes. As the proliferation of EV’s and other battery powered devices continues, scientists look for ways to make batteries hold more energy and run for longer periods of time. The properties of a battery’s separator film are an important consideration for the advancement of solid-state batteries, and researchers at ORNL are looking into the development of different thin films with different properties to find the solution that will allow a battery to run longer, all without compromising safety. Research and development associate at ORNL Guang Yang stated, “The major motivation to develop solid-state electrolyte membranes that are 30 micrometers or thinner was to pack more energy into lithium-ion batteries so your electric vehicles, laptops and cell phones can run much longer before needing to recharge.” Currently, lithium-ion batteries use plastic polymer solid state electrolytes that conduct ions, but the conductivity of these electrolytes is much lower than that of liquid electrolytes, which is why liquid electrolytes are sometimes added to polymer electrolytes to increase performance. Interestingly, the team discovered that the liquid electrolytes currently used in batteries are comparable to sulfide solid-state electrolytes. Consequently, the team decided to accelerate the development of thin films that incorporate sulfide solid-state electrolytes. Using advanced characterization techniques including Scanning electron microscopy, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, and nanoindentation  the team continues to analyze and improve their new sulfide solid-state electrolyte sheet. Learn more about this topic here.