Watching an anode's SEI layer shrink in real time (IMAGE)
Caption
This video shows a lithium metal wire coated with a layer called SEI and saturated with the surrounding liquid electrolyte; the dashed lines represent the outer edges of this SEI layer. As the electrolyte is removed, the SEI dries out and shrinks (arrows) to about half its previous thickness. SLAC and Stanford researchers used cryo-EM to make the first clear, detailed images of the SEI layer in the wet environment of a working battery. The results suggest new ways to improve the performance of next-gen batteries.
Credit
Zewen Zhang/Stanford University
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