SOLBAT: All-solid-state Lithium-metal Anode Batteries
All-solid-state batteries have the potential to revolutionise electric vehicles (EVs) and significantly impact the consumer electronics and aerospace sectors. The successful implementation of a lithium metal negative electrode, together with the replacement of flammable organic liquid electrolytes by solid electrolytes, would enable longer driving range, faster charging, and enhanced safety.
SOLBAT aims to address the fundamental barriers hindering the commercial implementation of lithium metal anode solid-state batteries (SSBs) capable of outperforming current Li-ion technology in EV applications.
Established in 2018 to tackle the core research challenges in SSBs, SOLBAT has delivered critical insights into how these systems behave across atomic, microscopic, and macroscopic length scales.
Key achievements include elucidating lithium metal–solid electrolyte interactions, identifying the mechanisms responsible for crack formation and short circuits, and uncovering the origins of degradation at the electrode–electrolyte interface. Further work has clarified the roles of grain boundaries, metallic interlayers, and cathode microstructure—each of which strongly influences battery performance, reliability, and long-term stability.
In its current phase, SOLBAT shifts from diagnosing failure mechanisms to establishing the scientific foundations required for deployable solutions. The programme focuses on four key areas related to: new interlayers for improved cycle life under realistic conditions, advanced composite cathodes capable of operating at practical temperatures and pressures, solid electrolyte separators that enable fast charging while suppressing short circuits, demonstration of advances in SSB pouch cell prototype formats translatable to industrial manufacturing processes.
By combining deep scientific understanding with targeted engineering, SOLBAT is laying the groundwork for commercially viable all-solid-state batteries. The programme will help secure the UK’s leadership in clean energy innovation and electric vehicle technology—supporting domestic battery manufacturing, creating high-skilled jobs, and accelerating the transition to net zero.
Timeline with milestone/deliverables (to March 2030)
The key aims of the project are to:
- Engineer lithium alloy microstructures that enable and sustain high lithium utilisation under realistic temperatures, pressures and current densities.
- Develop lithium interlayers to promote uniform lithium plating and stripping.
- Design advanced composite cathodes capable of robust operation under realistic temperatures, pressures and current densities.
- Apply cathode coatings to limit interfacial impedance, including its increase with cycling.
- Demonstrate dry processing as a scalable and sustainable method to fabricate composite cathode films.
- Demonstrate reproducible fabrication of thin-film solid electrolyte separators.
- Identify and validate densification approaches that enable the manufacture of mechanically robust thin solid electrolytes.
- Establish the ability of thin-film separators to withstand current densities compatible with fast charging.
- Establish a platform for pouch-cell prototype development using a warm isostatic press.
- Employ the pouch-cell platform to test hypotheses and evaluate anode, cathode, and electrolyte designs and deliverables.
Project innovations
SOLBAT addresses research-level barriers to the development and ultimate production of solid-state batteries. It has generated, and will continue to generate, new intellectual property relevant to commercialisation by industrial partners or through new ventures. The long-term goal is to establish a strong, foundational knowledge base to support the commercialisation of this transformative battery technology.
Principal Investigator
Professor Mauro Pasta
University of Oxford
Project Manager
Neil Cadman
University of Oxford
University Partners
University of Oxford (Lead)
Newcastle University
Research Organisations, Facilities and Institutes
Diamond Light Source
+ 2 major Industrial Partners
The Faraday Institution’s SOLBAT project has been enabled thanks to funding from the Battery Innovation Programme, through the Department for Business and Trade and delivered by Innovate UK.
