Solid-state batteries - The science, potential and challenges

Solid-state lithium-metal batteries have the potential to be more energy dense, safer and faster charging than traditional lithium-ion batteries but what is the science behind them, potential of the technology and challenges.
Here in this video we'll cover how solid-state lithium-metal batteries work, the different configurations/materials and reflect on practical considerations towards understanding how feasible the technology actually is.
00:00 - Introduction
00:11 - Why are we interested in solid-state batteries?
01:22 - Battery thermal runaway
03:14 - What is a solid-state lithium-metal battery?
04:25 - How does a lithium solid-state battery work?
05:19 - Solid-state battery architectures
08:53 - Solid-state electrolyte materials
10:37 - Practical energy density in lithium-ion batteries
12:33 - Energy density losses in packs
13:34 - Seeing beyond the hype - Practical energy densities of solid-state batteries
15:08 - Comparing lithium-metal with lithium-ion batteries
15:41 - Degradation mechanisms and challenges
18:21 - Innovation and scale-up take time
20:03 - Solid-state batteries: Hope or hype?
Interested in learning more?
Here are some books which I recommend to learn more about the history of batteries and how they've impacted the world
📚 Volt Rush: The Winners and Losers in the Race to Go Green - Henry Sanderson - amzn.to/4aa81te (Amazon)
📚 The Powerhouse: America, China, and the Great Battery War - Steve LeVine - amzn.to/44O37kR (Amazon)
📚 Climate Capitalism: Winning the Global Race to Zero Emissions - Akshat Rathi - amzn.to/3JWmy0Q (Amazon)

[@rookiebird9382]

Your video is by far the best on the fundamental physics of SSB

[@BillyWu]

Thanks. Glad to hear it was useful

[@linkedinroger]

With no discernible academic capability...I somehow manage to the gist of what you show and tell Billy. Thanks! 👏

[@BillyWu]

Thanks Roger, thought I think you underestimate yourself. You have a huge pool of knowledge and experience :)

[@dillipkumarmishra7549]

Prof. Wu, thanks for sharing. Very well made and extremely informative.

[@BillyWu]

Glad it was helpful!

[@phamgiangson8926]

Thank you Prof. Wu. Have followed you recently. It is thorough and easy to comprehend

[@BillyWu]

Thanks. Glad to hear it was useful

[@AlsoDave]

Your videos are always really informative and engaging thanks. Just, is it possible to increase the volume in the audio mixing please, you're much more softly spoken than the website seems to expect!

[@BillyWu]

Thanks and good feedback. Probably need to upgrade my current audio set-up and editing approach

[@sharmila365]

Prof. this is one of the enlightening lectures. Thanks a lot. I would ask if you could make a presentation on actual lab fabrication along with Dos and Don't and any calculations precautions etc that would be more helpful for graduate students... In case you have links of those practical demo of Battery fabrication and testing you could share here... Thank once again...

[@BillyWu]

Thanks. I have that on my list of potential videos (though I'm a bit slow with my outputs). I think Jove has some useful content on practical demos on a range of scientific topics. This might be useful. www.jove.com/. For general coin cell manufacturing, I think this paper is good from Jeff Dahn's group iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1149/2.1171902jes

[@sharmila365]

@@BillyWu Dear Professor.. I appreciate your quick reply and very helpful inputs... Most of the time experimental details of procedure and calculations of various parameters and analysis are being reported incorrectly.. Correct methodology will help all young researchers all over the world.

[@BillyWu]

@@sharmila365 Agreed. This paper nicely summarises some of the misleading things done in battery research chemistry-europe.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/batt.202100154. The other checklist is quite useful pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsenergylett.1c00870

[@Janamejaya.Channegowda]

Thank you for sharing, greatly appreciated.

[@BillyWu]

Glad you found it useful/interesting

[@deshaganisathish5089]

Prof Billy, thank you for sharing, nice video. It is very useful.

[@BillyWu]

Thanks. Glad you found it useful

[@change_of_game_energy]

Very fine video Billy! I have worked more on making energy that goes into the batteries

[@BillyWu]

Thanks

[@zamba118]

Hello Dr. Quite some elaborate explanation on the subject, so much appreciated. Just one question, could you clariffy on the mechanism for the movement of ions in an all solid state battery? That wasn't clear to me considering how this hapens in a liquid electrolyte. Other reading materials on all solid state batteries will also be so much appreicated, thanks once again. Zamba

[@BillyWu]

Thanks and good question. You're right that the mechanism for lithium-ion movement in liquid and solid-state electrolytes is different. In liquid based systems, the lithium-ions are solvated around solvent molecules. This is a similar mechanisms to when you dissolve table salt in water. The lithium-ions then diffuse through the liquid electrolyte, often through a concentration gradient. In a solid-state electrolyte, the lithium-ions move through the solid material's crystal lattice. One analogy here could be the solid-electrolyte is like a bookshelf and the lithium-ions are books, which you push along the bookshelf. Hope this helps.

[@gleambrite2679]

Great video. We seem to have the energy density and chemical engineering down. The biggest issues seem to be the pesky anodes. If you made a battery pack you could replace anodes like we do oil filters. Thank you for showing the differences between cell and pack. I do think we could improve on the issues with battery packs. Catode could be 70% of a solid state battery. Easy manufacturing. Replacement of anode and maybe even electrolyte. Make one big 3 part pack for EV,s.

[@BillyWu]

Thanks. Yeah, anodes are one of the key limiting factors in a battery. A key challenge with replacement and refurbishment of batteries is that all components are quite air and moisture sensitive, making it difficult to swap bits out. Some have suggested swappable batteries which have their pros and cons. Good to have discussions about the different routes forward.

[@earmuffz2348]

Very informative! Thanks so much!

[@BillyWu]

Glad it was helpful!

[@POLiS-HIU]

Thank you very much - a very informative and well done summary. Lithium anodes would require significantly more lithium than current lithium-ion batteries. Lithium shortages are already predicted in scenarios for 2030 and 2040. Therefore, this ASSB type is the most critical for me. Maybe solid state sodium batteries would be a solution.

[@BillyWu]

Thanks and agreed. In certain solid-state electrolytes the amount of lithium is significantly higher than liquid electrolytes too. Solid-state or sodium-metal anodes are very interesting. Am sure this will be another top topic shortly.

[@priscillacamargosmacieira7836]

Excellent! Thanks for sharing

[@BillyWu]

@@priscillacamargosmacieira7836 Thanks. Glad to hear it was helpful

[@tatchkult]

Very informative presentation Billy So what BTRL stage for ssb is in right now? I’m View from Weeks hall if you remember 😄😄

[@BillyWu]

Hi View. Great to hear from you again after so many years! Good question, there are companies at different levels of maturity but probably somewhere between BTRL 4 and 5. Several companies have demonstrated good lab data and are trying to scale up, but there are more limited examples of implementation into vehicles, especially for oxide and sulfide based systems, maybe a couple of polymer based systems are more mature.

[@user-rt5sp4de1h]

Hey, I would like to use this as a source for my research paper, is it possible I use this as a citation?

[@BillyWu]

Of course. Feel free to use the information here. Where appropriate, do use the original source I noted in my slides to recognise the original author works. In some places I made modifications to this and you can just refer to this resource.

[@Catastrofia]

Great vid! Thanks!

[@BillyWu]

Thanks

[@lizzyventura1029]

Dr. Wu's videos on basic batteries and this last one are very interesting, the way he explains it is very didactic and instructive, thank you for sharing it. Which is to invite you to my country to implement an experimental solid battery manufacturing plant that you know about and expose in your videos. We have all the raw materials available for manufacturing such as lithium in solid state, graphite and anthracite mineral carbon, Manganese, cobalt, aluminum, copper, nickel, cadmium, and other rare earths and aluminas that could be used in its manufacturing, reducing transportation costs. and time. Peru is the second largest producer of copper in the world and a mining country par excellence with all the mineral resources to give it added value that needs to further develop its industry in different economic and energy generation areas. My cordial greetings and I hope that you study the proposal and gather investors in development technologies to invest in Peru, South America, in all types of scientific and technological projects.

[@BillyWu]

Thanks for the comments. Great to see interest in batteries across the world

[@sirengokeith8716]

Nice one

[@BillyWu]

Thanks

[@vankajayalakshmi]

Very nice

[@BillyWu]

Thanks

[@PravdaSeed]

🌀🔋 Thanks

[@davidvennel720]

This was great, I learned a lot. Thanks Prof. Wu!

[@BillyWu]

Thanks. Glad to hear it was useful

[@doobiescoobie]

Why dont they make fleet vehicles that have swappable batteries? If they did, when new technology replaced lithium it would be a quick swap for battery vehicles without replacing the body of the vehicle.

[@BillyWu]

Great question. Swappable batteries for micro-mobility (ebikes, escooters etc) are generally common place now. The concept of swappable batteries for larger vehicles does exist but is a bit more challenging due to design complexity and handling of larger systems. One of the original companies pushing this was Better Place which went bust a while ago. NIO in China are currently deploying their swappable solutions. The decision ultimately needs consideration of the trade off between design flexibility, solution optimisation and cost.

[@doobiescoobie]

@@BillyWu Thank you. In the long run on a cost/benefit standpoint this would reduce ownership costs of the battery to the customer and likely keep fleet operations running 24/7. You could have a tandem energy storage solution at the battery charging station if required as well.

[@BillyWu]

@@doobiescoobie Definitely pathways to have a lower total cost-of-ownership over the lifetime of the vehicle. The challenge is convincing people of this over the higher capital and also operationally executing this, but yes, in theory lots of potential benefits. Hopefully lots of new business models to come

[@breakhart]

I always wonder are solid-state battery a battery or a super-capacitor? 🤔

[@BillyWu]

Yeah, there's lots of different names out there at the moment which can make things confusing. A solid-state battery replaces the liquid usually used in a battery with a solid material. The idea is to make it safer. A supercapacitor is a bit different to a battery. Usually electricity is storage in high surface area materials like activated carbon unlike batteries which usually use lower surface area materials but the lithium-ions go into the material like books in a bookshelf

[@breakhart]

@@BillyWu yes, they are quite confusing, especially solid-state battery since I don't have any experience nor degree on that area. thanks for answering

[@Parture]

Why does noone use ceramic separtor

[@nusenyaw]

Qutantumscape

[@BillyWu]

Quantumscape are one of the companies commercialising ceramic separators. These have decent stability but are often challenging to manufacture because you often need a high temperature sintering step which can cause mechanical warping in large films.

[@eriknordqvist9016]

I have already seen factories in China that manufacture Solid-State batteries.

[@BillyWu]

Yeah, China are moving rapidly with the technology. Impressive to see

[@eriknordqvist9016]

@@BillyWu I am having a hard time maybe finding a factory in China, that could produce a small size Solid-State battery 1-5 kWh for domestic use in mass-production. If you would have any help in factories in China, that would help a lot?

[@BillyWu]

@@eriknordqvist9016 Yeah, since the technology is still in its early stages it can be hard to get cells. You might want to consider a company called ProLogium

[@eriknordqvist9016]

@@BillyWu I will look into them, thanks.

[@douggolde7582]

Solid state Betamax.

[@BillyWu]

Good analogy!

[@crutchclargo]

Two minutes of nonsense, no interest of past batteries..moving on to another thread that have concise, valid information.

[@meilyn22]

Huh?

[@Jetter638]

Great video....thx!

[@BillyWu]

Thanks. Glad to hear it was useful