Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Alloying anodes such as silicon are of great interest for lithium-ion batteries due to their high lithium-ion storage capacities, but have only seen minimal commercial deployment due to their limited calendar life. This has been attributed to an intrinsically unstable solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) that is aggravated by mechanical failure. An amorphous structure can mitigate lithiation strains, and amorphous alloys, or metallic glasses, often exhibit exceptional fracture toughness. Additional elements can be added to metallic glasses to improve passivation. Splat quenching was utilized to prepare an amorphous Al64Si25Mn11 Li-ion anode with a specific capacity >900 mAh g-1 that remains amorphous upon cycling. On this metallic glass electrode, parasitic electrolyte reduction is found to be much reduced in comparison to pure Si or Al, and comparable to that on Cu. The SEI is much thinner, more stable, and richer in fluorinated inorganic phases than the SEI formed on Si, while organic carbonate compounds such as lithium ethylene decarbonate (LiEDC) are notably absent. This study indicates that metallic glasses can become a viable new class of Li-ion anode materials with improved surface passivity.