Stress and Manufacturability in Solid-State Lithium-Ion Batteries

The increasing demand for higher energy density in energy storage systems has instituted the need for electrodes with higher specific capacity and long-term cyclability. However, conventional Li-ion batteries using liquid electrolytes are incapable of reaching the high energy density requirements due to their incompatibility with these high-capacity electrodes. Moreover, these conventional Li-ion batteries are prone to catch fire due to dendrite growth, interfacial instabilities, liquid leakage, and thermal runaway. In contrast, solid-state batteries (SS-LIBs) are a promising technology which can utilize high theoretical specific capacity anodes such as Li metal and Si-based anodes. SS-LIBs experiences internal stresses in between the layers (of electrodes and electrolyte). During lithiation cycling in a SS-LIB, the electrode layers undergo volumetric, phase, and/or lattice dimensional changes, which induces the structural constraints at the interfaces. These constraints raise internal stresses in different stress concentrated regions, leading to poor interfacial contacts, capacity fading, and possible battery failure. In addition, the practicability of SS-LIBs relies on overcoming the scalability challenges, notably, in handling multilayered structures, homogeneity of the interfacial contact, and a suitable stacking process without damaging the multilayered SS-LIB structure. Herein, we evaluate and discuss the cause and impact of these stress management and manufacturability challenges and provide a review of the studies conducted in tackling these challenges. We aim to guide the readers towards tackling these problems and provide possible shortcomings in these solutions.