Advanced imaging provides insights that could help avoid battery failure

Solid-state batteries using lithium metal anodes are seen as being able to deliver a step-change improvement in EV battery range, safety and performance. They could also have a role in the development of electrically powered aviation.

Li-SSBs replace the flammable liquid electrolyte in conventional batteries with a solid electrolyte and use lithium metal as the anode. The use of the solid electrolyte improves safety, and the use of lithium metal means more energy can be stored.

Li-SSBs are, however, prone to short circuit when charging due to the growth of dendrites, which are filaments of lithium metal that crack through the ceramic electrolyte.

Now, as part of the Faraday Institution’s SOLBAT project, researchers from Oxford University’s Departments of Materials, Chemistry and Engineering Science, have led a series of investigations to understand more about how this short-circuiting happens. Their findings are detailed in Nature.

In a statement, co-lead author Dominic Melvin, a PhD student in Oxford University’s Department of Materials, said: “Progressing solid-state batteries with lithium metal anodes is one of the most important challenges facing the advancement of battery technologies. While today's lithium-ion batteries will continue to improve, research into solid-state batteries has the potential to be high-reward and a game-changer technology.”