Comparison of the growth of lithium filaments and dendrites under different conditions

Abstract Although lithium dendrites have important implications on the safety and reliability of lithium-based batteries, an understanding of their growth mechanism is still lacking. Electron microscopy and in situ light microscopy were used to investigate the growth of lithium filaments and dendrites. Lithium was deposited by thermal evaporation in vacuum as well as electrochemically using two different electrolytes. Filaments grow in all three cases by an insertion mechanism, suggesting that neither a solid-electrolyte interphase (SEI) nor electrolytes are required to form lithium filaments. The role of the electrolyte becomes apparent in the detailed morphology of the deposits. These findings indicate that instead of ionic transport and electrochemistry, lithium diffusion and crystallization are key processes which need to be modified in order to control the growth of lithium dendrites.

[1]  R. Sekerka.  Equilibrium and growth shapes of crystals: how do they differ and why should we care? , 2005 .

[2]  Ji‐Guang Zhang,et al.  Lithium metal anodes for rechargeable batteries , 2014 .

[3]  Michel Armand,et al.  A new class of Solvent-in-Salt electrolyte for high-energy rechargeable metallic lithium batteries , 2013, Nature Communications.

[4]  Jae-Hun Kim,et al.  Metallic anodes for next generation secondary batteries. , 2013, Chemical Society reviews.

[5]  D. Aurbach.  Review of selected electrode–solution interactions which determine the performance of Li and Li ion batteries , 2000 .

[6]  H. Strunk,et al.  The filamentary growth of metals , 2011 .

[7]  Michael A. Danzer,et al.  Nondestructive detection, characterization, and quantification of lithium plating in commercial lithium-ion batteries , 2014 .

[8]  Reiner Mönig,et al.  Microscopic observations of the formation, growth and shrinkage of lithium moss during electrodeposition and dissolution , 2014 .

[9]  J. Steiger,et al.  Mechanisms of dendritic growth investigated by in situ light microscopy during electrodeposition and dissolution of lithium , 2014 .

[10]  D. Aurbach,et al.  The Correlation Between Surface Chemistry, Surface Morphology, and Cycling Efficiency of Lithium Electrodes in a Few Polar Aprotic Systems , 1989 .

[11]  J. L. Barton,et al.  The electrolytic growth of dendrites from ionic solutions , 1962, Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series A. Mathematical and Physical Sciences.

[12]  M. Pavlović,et al.  Comparison of the critical conditions for initiation of dendritic growth and powder formation in potentiostatic and galvanostatic copper electrodeposition , 1982 .

[13]  J. Yamaki,et al.  A consideration of the morphology of electrochemically deposited lithium in an organic electrolyte , 1997 .

[14]  D. Aurbach,et al.  Correlation between surface chemistry, morphology, cycling efficiency and interfacial properties of Li electrodes in solutions containing different Li salts , 1994 .

[15]  A. MacDowell,et al.  Detection of subsurface structures underneath dendrites formed on cycled lithium metal electrodes. , 2014, Nature materials.

[16]  H. Ota,et al.  Characterization of lithium electrode in lithium imides/ethylene carbonate and cyclic ether electrolytes. II. Surface chemistry , 2004 .

[17]  B. Liaw,et al.  A review of lithium deposition in lithium-ion and lithium metal secondary batteries , 2014 .

[18]  O. Kraft,et al.  Ultrahigh strength single crystalline nanowhiskers grown by physical vapor deposition. , 2009, Nano letters.