In situ lithiated quinone cathode for ALD/MLD-fabricated high-power thin-film battery

Abstract

We demonstrate that the high-capacity organic electrode material, p-benzoquinone, is able to sustain ultrahigh redox reaction rates without any conductive additives when applied as ultrathin layers in an all-solid-state thin-film battery setup, viable for e.g. high-performance power sources in microelectronic devices. The combined atomic/molecular layer deposition (ALD/MLD) technique employed for the fabrication allows the in situ deposition of the quinone cathode in its lithiated state. The LiPON solid electrolyte is fabricated by ALD as a remarkably thin layer down to 30 nm. Our proof-of-concept setup is able to reach 50% of the full capacity in less than 0.25 s, with energy/power densities of 108 mW h cm⁻³ and 508 W cm⁻³. These characteristics are of considerable promise towards bridging the gap between microbatteries and microsupercapacitors. Moreover, we demonstrate an all-ALD/MLD-made organic battery where the lithium quinone and LiPON layers are combined with a lithium terephthalate anode layer.