Lithium Metal Anodes: Toward an Improved Understanding of Coupled Morphological, Electrochemical, and Mechanical Behavior

Li metal anodes are often considered a “holy grail” in the field of rechargeable batteries. Accordingly, the research community continuously seeks new strategies to improve their cyclability and reduce interfacial degradation. However, many recent reports focus on approaches that mitigate the symptoms of poor performance due to dendrites without addressing the underlying root cause of why they form and how they evolve. We propose that an emphasis on purely performance-based metrics has diluted the community’s understanding of why a certain methodology is (un)successful. Furthermore, the lack of consistent protocols for reporting cell performance and inconsistent terminology for describing physical phenomena that occur at the Li anode make quantitative comparison difficult. The goal of this Perspective is to motivate the need for more consistent and fundamental research on the interfacial electrochemistry on Li metal anodes. Herein we provide an overview of: 1) recent advances in understanding the fundamen...

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