Empa - Thin Films and Photovoltaics

Thin-Film Batteries

Thin-film lithium-ion batteries are solid-state batteries that combine the advantages of solid-state batteries with thin-film manufacturing processes. Thin-film batteries (sometimes referred to as microbatteries) are intended to powering wireless sensors, smart cards, active RFID tags, and consumer electronics.

Compared to conventional Li-ion batteries, thin-film batteries offer:

high charge/discharge rate
high power density
long lifetime
high safety (no organic liquid or polymer electrolyte)
low self-discharge

Our Laboratory is developing thin-film batteries, with a special research focus on:

solid-state electrolytes, such as Li₇La₃Zr₂O₁₂ (LLZO) with Li-ion conductivity > 10^-4 S cm^-1
high-voltage thin-film cathodes such as LiCoO₂, NMC811, etc;
lithium metal anodes
interfacial layers enabling efficient Li-ion transport and preventing undesirable interdiffusion: Al₂O₃, ZnO, Nb₂O₅, and others
corrosion-resistant current collectors
novel device designs such as monolithically stacked multi-cell batteries for increased power and energy density.

Ar-filled glovebox line with in-situ transfer between sputter and evaporation chambers allows all-dry, all-vacuum fabrication of thin-film solid-state batteries.

Selected publications:

Joel Casella, Jȩdrzej Morzy, Evgeniia Gilshtein, Maksym Yarema, Moritz H. Futscher, and Yaroslav E. Romanyuk, Electrochemical Activation of Fe-LiF Conversion Cathodes in Thin-Film Solid-State Batteries. ACS Nano 2024 18 (5), 4352-4359.
André Müller, Luis Paravicini, Jȩdrzej Morzy, Maximilian Krause, Joel Casella, Nicolas Osenciat, Moritz H Futscher, Yaroslav E Romanyuk, Influence of Au, Pt, and C seed layers on lithium nucleation dynamics for anode-free solid-state batteries. ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 2024 16 (1), 695-703.
Moritz H. Futscher, Luc Brinkman, André Müller, Joel Casella, Abdessalem Aribia & Yaroslav E. Romanyuk, Monolithically-stacked thin-film solid-state batteries. Commun Chem 6, 110, 2023.
Andre Müller, Faruk Okur, Abdessalem Aribia, Nicolas Osenciat, Carlos A. F. Vaz, Valerie Siller, Mario El Kazzi, Evgeniia Gilshtein, Moritz H. Futscher, Kostiantyn V. Kravchyk, Maksym V. Kovalenko and Yaroslav E. Romanyuk, Benchmarking the performance of lithiated metal oxide interlayers at the LiCoO2|LLZO interface, Mater. Adv., 2023, 4, 2138.
Abdessalem Aribia, Jordi Sastre, Xubin Chen, Moritz H. Futscher, Matthias Rumpel, Agnieszka Priebe, Max Döbeli, Nicolas Osenciat, Ayodhya N. Tiwari, Yaroslav E. Romanyuk, Unlocking Stable Multi-Electron Cycling in NMC811 Thin-Films between 1.5 – 4.7 V, Adv. Energy Mater. 2022, 2201750.
Moritz H. Futscher, Thomas Amelal, Jordi Sastre, André Müller, Jyotish Patidar, Abdessalem Aribia, Kerstin Thorwarth, Sebastian Siol and Yaroslav E. Romanyuk, Influence of amorphous carbon interlayers on nucleation and early growth of lithium metal at the current collector-solid electrolyte interface, J. Mater. Chem. A, 2022, Advance Article.
Xubin Chen, Jordi Sastre, Abdessalem Aribia, Evgeniia Gilshtein, and Yaroslav E. Romanyuk, Flash Lamp Annealing Enables Thin-Film Solid-State Batteries on Aluminum Foil, ACS Appl. Energy Mater. 2021, 4, 6, 5408–5414.
Jordi Sastre, Moritz H. Futscher, Lea Pompizi, Abdessalem Aribia, Agnieszka Priebe, Jan Overbeck, Michael Stiefel, Ayodhya N. Tiwari & Yaroslav E. Romanyuk, Blocking lithium dendrite growth in solid-state batteries with an ultrathin amorphous Li-La-Zr-O solid electrolyte, Commun. Mater. 2021, 2, 76.
Abdessalem Aribia, Jordi Sastre, Xubin Chen, Evgeniia Gilshtein, Moritz H. Futscher, Ayodhya N. Tiwari and Yaroslav E. Romanyuk, In Situ Lithiated ALD Niobium Oxide for Improved Long Term Cycling of Layered Oxide Cathodes: A Thin-Film Model Study, J. Electrochem. Soc. 2021, 168 (4), 040513.
Xubin Chen, Jordi Sastre, Matthias Rumpel, Andreas Flegler, Anurag Singhania, Javier Balta Bonner, Patrik Hoffmann, Yaroslav E. Romanyuk, Photonic methods for rapid crystallization of LiMn₂O₄ cathodes for solid-state thin-film batteries, J. Power Sources, 2021, 495, 229424.
Jordi Sastre, Agnieszka Priebe, Max Döbeli, Johann Michler, Ayodhya N. Tiwari, Yaroslav E. Romanyuk, Lithium Garnet Li₇La₃Zr₂O₁₂ Electrolyte for All‐Solid‐State Batteries: Closing the Gap between Bulk and Thin Film Li‐Ion Conductivities, Adv. Mater. Interfaces, 2020, 2000425.
Jordi Sastre, Xubin Chen, Abdessalem Aribia, Ayodhya N. Tiwari, and Yaroslav E. Romanyuk, Fast Charge Transfer across the Li₇La₃Zr₂O₁₂ Solid Electrolyte/LiCoO₂ Cathode Interface Enabled by an Interphase-Engineered All-Thin-Film Architecture, ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 2020, 12, 32, 36196–36207.
Jordi Sastre, Tzu-Ying Lin, Alejandro N. Filippin, Agnieszka Priebe, Enrico Avancini, Johann Michler, Ayodhya N. Tiwari, Yaroslav E. Romanyuk, Stephan Buecheler, Aluminum-Assisted Densification of Cosputtered Lithium Garnet Electrolyte Films for Solid-State Batteries, ACS Appl. Energy Mater. 2019, 2, 12, 8511-8524.