Application of Stabilized Lithium Metal Powder (SLMP®) in graphite anode – A high efficient prelithiation method for lithium-ion batteries

•Develop a method to apply SLMP in graphite anode.•The prelithiated graphite anode can compensate first cycle capacity loss and maintain capacity.•No low external current driven formation is required with SLMP-prelithiated graphite anode.•Manufacturing cost for cell formation can be significantly reduced with additional of SLMP.•Potential application of high capacity non-lithiated cathode.

Stabilized Lithium Metal Powder (SLMP®) was applied in graphite anode and the effects of this prelithiation method to cell performance were investigated. Performance of prelithiated cells was compared with that of regular graphite based cells. The first cycle capacity loss of SLMP prelithiated cell was largely reduced and the corresponding first cycle Coulombic efficiency was significantly improved. The graphite/NMC cell with SLMP prelithiation but without any standard cell formation process showed better cycle performance than that of none SLMP containing cell with standard formation process. Prelithiation of graphite electrode with SLMP promote stable solid electrolyte interface (SEI) formation on the surface of graphite anode. Application of SLMP in lithium-ion battery thus provides an effective method to enhance capacity, and promises a low cost SEI formation process. This also implies the potential use of other promising anode materials, such as Si and Sn that have large first cycle capacity loss, in commercial lithium-ion batteries.