Scalable preparation of practical 1Ah all-solid-state lithium-ion batteries cells and their abuse tests

All-solid-state lithium-ion batteries are considered as a promising electric energy storage platform for electric vehicles due to the replacement of flammable liquid organic electrolytes in current lithium-ion batteries by inflammable solid ones; thus promoting high safety. Despite plenty of research on various solid electrolytes and other components, reports on the scalable production of all-solid-state lithium-ion batteries using electrodes with meaningful areal capacities are rather scarce. Consequently, the safety of all-solid-state lithium-ion batteries has not been systematically investigated yet, especially on cells with higher than lab-scale capacities. The aim of this report is to build a bridge between academic research and more industrially meaningful information on the safety of all-solid-state lithium-ion batteries. Thus, three 1Ah all-solid-state lithium-ion batteries were fabricated, where hybrid solid electrolyte consisting of PEO-LiTFSI polymer matrix with Lithium Ionic Conductive Glass Ceramic (LICGC™, Ohara Inc.) particle as active filler was sandwiched between NMC622 cathode and advanced graphite MCMB anode, both of which have a practically valuable areal capacity of higher than 1.0 mAh/cm2. Initial formation cycling was performed to build conformal interface between solid electrolyte film and electrodes. Comparable specific capacity of cathode active materials (∼90.0 mAh/g @ C/10 & 60 °C) could be achieved in three pouch cells with high consistence. Typical abuse tests including overcharge, external short, and nail penetration were conducted, the three 1Ah all-solid-state lithium-ion batteries cells showed excellent safety performance: there was no thermal runaway, no explosion, only slight increase of temperature was observed. This work demonstrates the scalable fabrication of practical all-solid-state lithium-ion batteries with consistent electrochemical performance and thereafter confirms their intrinsic safety.