Elegant design of electrode and electrode/electrolyte interface in lithium-ion batteries by atomic layer deposition

Lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) are very promising power supply systems for a variety of applications, such as electric vehicles, plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, grid energy storage, and microelectronics. However, to realize these practical applications, many challenges need to be addressed in LIBs, such as power and energy density, cycling lifetime, safety, and cost. Atomic layer deposition (ALD) is emerging as a powerful technique for solving these problems due to its exclusive advantages over other film deposition counterparts. In this review, we summarize the state-of-the-art progresses of employing ALD to design novel nanostructured electrode materials and solid-state electrolytes and to tailor electrode/electrolyte interface by surface coatings in order to prevent unfavorable side reactions and achieve optimal performance of the electrode. Insights into the future research and development of the ALD technique for LIB applications are also discussed. We expect that this review article will provide resourceful information to researchers in both fields of LIBs and ALD and also will stimulate more insightful studies of using ALD for the development of next-generation LIBs.