Achieving the high capacity and high stability of Li-rich oxide cathode in garnet-based solid-state battery

Solid-state batteries (SSBs) based on Li-rich Mn-based oxide (LRMO) cathodes attract much attention because of their high energy density as well as high safety. But their development was seriously hindered by the interfacial instability and inferior electrochemical performance. Herein, we design a three-dimensional foam-structured GaN-Li composite anode and successfully construct a high-performance SSB based on Co-free Li${}_{1.2}$Ni${}_{0.2}$Mn${}_{0.6}$O${}_2$ cathode and Li${}_{6.5}$La${}_3$Zr${}_{1.5}$Ta${}_{0.5}$O${}_{12}$ (LLZTO) solid electrolyte. The interfacial resistance is considerably reduced to only 1.53 Ω cm${}^2$ and the assembled Li symmetric cell is stably cycled more than 10,000 h at 0.1-0.2 mA cm${}^{-2}$. The full battery shows a high initial capacity of 245 mAh g${}^{-1}$ at 0.1 C and does not show any capacity degradation after 200 cycles at 0.2 C (≈100 %). The voltage decay is well suppressed and it is significantly decreased from 2.96 mV/cycle to only 0.66 mV/cycle. The SSB also shows a very high rate capability (≈170 mAh g${}^{-1}$ at 1 C) comparable to a liquid electrolyte-based battery. Moreover, the oxygen anion redox (OAR) reversibility of LRMO in SSB is much higher than that in liquid electrolyte-based cells. This study offers a distinct strategy for constructing high-performance LRMO-based SSBs and sheds light on the development and application of high-energy density SSBs. (© 2023 Wiley‐VCH GmbH)