Thorny issue plaguing lithium-ion batteries laid bare in new study

Lithium dendrites, tiny crystalline spines that grow on the anodes of lithium-ion batteries during charging, pose a persistent challenge to the world’s most widely used form of energy storage. “Dendrites can penetrate the battery separator, causing catastrophic short circuits and safety hazards,” said Qing Ai, a former research scientist at Rice University and first author of a new study published in Science that reports for the first time exactly how these delicate structures behave inside batteries. “Despite decades of study, the fundamental nanomechanical properties of lithium dendrites have remained a mystery until now.”