An anisotropic strategy for developing polymer electrolytes endowing lithium metal batteries with electrochemo-mechanically stable interface

Abstract Developing versatile solid polymer electrolytes is a reasonable approach to achieving reliable lithium metal batteries but is still challenging due to the nonuniform lithium deposition associated with the sluggish Li + kinetics and insufficient mechanical strength. Herein, the concept of developing anisotropic solid polymer electrolyte is realized via integrating polymer hosts with highly oriented polyacrylonitrile nanofibers modified by Li 6.4 La 3 Zr 1.4 Ta 0.6 O 12 particles. The oriented composite structure is employed to homogenize Li + flux, serving as a physical barrier to resist lithium dendrites, retarding the side reaction between the electrolyte and lithium, thus endowing a compatible interface for lithium negative electrode. Correspondingly, the Li | |LiFePO 4 cells steadily operate over 1000 cycles, delivering durable capacity retention of 91% at 170 mA g -1 . Furthermore, numerical modeling and density functional theory are combined to clarify the multiphysics interplay between the designed solid polymer electrolyte and lithium negative electrode. This work provides a perspective for constructing interface-friendly solid polymer electrolytes at an electrochemo-mechanical level.