Metal hydrides hold great promise as anode materials in conversion type Li-ion batteries due to their high theoretical capacities. Unfortunately, they generally suffer from unsatisfactory reversibility and short cycle life.
In this project, we investigate a series of metal hydride anode materials, e.g. NaAlH4, MgH2 and Mg2FeH6 in order to shed light on the origin of the poor cycle life and identify means to improve the reversibility and lifetime of the materials.
One highly interesting finding from our studies have been that Mg2FeH6 exhibits improvements in the capacity retention and initial Coulombic efficiency of > 3 and> 2.5 times, respectively, when applied as anode in an all-solid-state battery (i.e. with a solid-state electrolyte) as compared to the conventional liquid-electrolyte battery.

This project was part of the Marie Curie ITN Ecostore. See more information on the Ecostore webpage. The Ecostore project was funded from the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme for research, technological development and demonstration under grant agreement no 607040.