Evolution of Protrusions on Lithium Metal Anodes Stabilized by a Solid Block Copolymer Electrolyte Studied Using Time-Resolved X-ray Tomography.

Growing demand for rechargeable batteries with higher energy densities has motivated research focused on enabling the lithium metal anode. A prominent failure mechanism in such batteries is short circuiting due to the uncontrolled propagation of lithium protrusions that often have a dendritic morphology. In this paper, the electrodeposition of metallic lithium through a rigid polystyrene--poly(ethylene oxide) (PS--PEO or SEO) block copolymer electrolyte was studied using hard X-ray microtomography.