Metal- and Liquid-free Organic Lithium-Ion BatteriEs for Sustainable and Safe Energy Storage – MOLIBE

The developed MOLIBE batteries will allow for significantly reduced cost due to the replacement of metallic Al and Cu current collectors by highly versatile, 3D carbon current collectors (CCCs), the possibility of using alternative, cheaper implementation technologies as, e.g., extrusion processing, and, finally, the replacement of geopolitical and critical materials like Co and Cu by easily accessible organic materials only. Eventually, also the replacement of Li+ as charge carrier by non-metallic cations is envisioned, targeting a further facilitated recycling and sustainability. However, as this replacement is a very challenging objective, reaching far beyond the state of the art, no specific performance metrics are targeted. Instead, the final goal for this latter technology is the realization of a proof-of-concept cell that will open up a new research field by itself. The MOLIBE consortium is composed of four research and technology organizations, CEA, LEPMI, and CANOE in France and KIT in Germany and two companies BERNARD DUMAS in France and DAIKIN in Germany, which are complementary in their R&D activities and competencies.

- New Single conducting polymer electrolytes have been synthetized with promising performances
- The electrochemical characterizations with the organic electrodes revealed very promising results concerning the cycling stability and rate capability, which are both key features for organic batteries as alternative to common battery technologies based on inorganic active materials.
- It was shown that the cell based on carbon collector made of bio-sourced precursors such as cellulose and electrodes with PTCLi4 as active material show superior cycling stability and rate capability compared to electrodes based on aluminum or copper foil as current collector.

In next part a project, based on the results obtained upto now, all the materials will be improved in order to reach with high performance new active materials, electrolytes, and CCCs as well as new processing technologies to reach the final performance targets for these newly designed MOLIBE batteries are a specific energy of 100 Wh kg-1 combined with a life cycle of at least 500 cycles before providing less than 80% of the initial reversible capacity. Eventually, also the replacement of Li+ as charge carrier by non-metallic cations is envisioned, targeting a further facilitated recycling and sustainability. For the successful exploitation of the herein achieved results, the simultaneous LCA and sustainability evaluation at KIT will be a substantial advantage. The second major target concerns the achievement of an in-depth understanding of the occurring cation storage and transport mechanisms, though different structural, morphological transport analysis. This is of particular interest with respect to the presently rather scarce literature on this matter.
While DAIKIN will be particularly involved in the exploitation of all IP related to the organic active materials and polymer electrolytes, BD will be leading for exploiting the IP related to the CCC.

R. Chen, D. Bresser, M. Saraf, P. Gerlach, A. Balducci, S. Kunz, D. Schröder, S. Passerini, J. Chen – A comparative review of electrolytes for organic-material-based energy-storage devices employing solid electrodes and redox fluids, ChemSusChem 2020 (13) 2205-2219.
M. Erakca, M. Weil, D. Bresser, S. Pinto Bautista – Challenges and Pitfalls of Conducting Prospective LCA for Emerging Technologies: The Example of Metal-Free Organic Batteries, 15th Conference Society and Materials – EcoSD (virtual conference), 10.-11.05.2021

Lithium-ion batteries are considered as the most promising energy storage technology to enable the successful electrification of modern society’s mobility needs. However, beside the necessity for enhanced energy and power, two main issues exist which are the high cost and severe safety concerns. While the first is particularly related to the incorporation of pricey metals as Co, Ni or Cu, the latter is mainly associated to the easily flammable and unstable liquid electrolytes. Within MOLIBE, these issues are addressed by realizing all-solid metal-free secondary batteries, employing organic active materials directly deposited on 3D carbon current collectors (CCCs) and single-ion polymer electrolytes (SIPEs). For the successful accomplishment of these challenging tasks, MOLIBE will strongly benefit from the highly complementary strengths and competencies in organic electrode and polymer electrolyte synthesis/characterization, cell fabrication/testing and sustainability evaluation of the French and German partners. The MOLIBE consortium is composed of four research and technology organizations, CEA, LEPMI, and CANOE in France and KIT in Germany and two companies BERNARD DUMAS in France and DAIKIN in Germany, which are complementary in their R&D activities and competencies.