Surface Fluorination Shielding of Sulfide Solid Electrolytes for Enhanced Electrochemical Stability in All‐Solid‐State Batteries

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

Despite their high Li⁺ conductivity and deformability, sulfide solid electrolytes suffer from limited electrochemical stability, which prevents all-solid-state batteries (ASSBs) from reaching their full performance potential. Herein, a facile surface fluorination strategy is presented for Li₆PS₅Cl using XeF₂ as a solid-state fluorinating agent, enabling a scalable dry process at moderate temperatures. An ≈37.3 nm-thick uniform fluorinated layer is coated on an Li₆PS₅Cl surface, preserving 82.8% of the initial Li⁺ conductivity (from 2.9 × 10⁻³ only to 2.4 × 10⁻³ S cm⁻¹ at 30 °C). The underlying fluorination mechanism, deduced through systematic investigations using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, X-ray Rietveld refinement, nuclear magnetic resonance, and density functional theory calculations, involves the formation of surface oxidative byproducts and F substitution within the lattice. When applied to LiNi0.90Co0.05Mn0.05O₂ electrodes in LiNi0.90Co0.05Mn0.05O₂||(Li-In) half cells at 30 °C, the fluorinated Li₆PS₅Cl substantially improves the electrochemical performance, delivering superior discharge capacities (e.g., 186.9 vs 173.6 mA h g⁻¹ at 0.33C), capacity retention, and safety characteristics compared to unmodified Li₆PS₅Cl. This enhancement is attributed to the formation of a robust fluorinated cathode electrolyte interphase that mitigates Li₆PS₅Cl oxidation. Finally, the stable operation of a pouch-type LiNi0.90Co0.05Mn0.05O₂||Li ASSB is demonstrated, highlighting the scalability of the proposed approach.