Enhanced areal specific capacity and energy density of solid-state lithium battery by using porous aluminum foam

Abstract High-loading electrode based on aluminum foil is difficult to use in solid-state lithium battery because of its low conductivity, which affects the areal specific capacity and energy density of the battery. In this work, three dimensional through-hole aluminum foam was used as current collectors of high-loading LiNi0.6Co0.2Mn0.2O2 (NCM622) electrodes and for first time applied in solid-state lithium battery. The use of aluminum foam instead of commercial aluminum foil can greatly increase the areal specific capacity, the areal specific capacity was increased from 0.4 mAh/cm2 to 1.3, 1.4, 1.6 mAh/cm2 for different thickness of aluminum foams. At the same time, the energy density of solid-state battery composed of aluminum foam-based electrodes are 2.5~3 times that of aluminum foil-based solid-state battery. The aluminum foam has a significant application prospect as electrode current collector for solid-state batteries.