Unravelling the room-temperature atomic structure and growth kinetics of lithium metal

• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-19206-w
• Publication Date: 2020-10-23T10:04:28Z
• Authors: Chao Liang; Xun Zhang; Shuixin Xia; Zeyu Wang; Jiayi Wu; Biao Yuan; Xin Luo; Weiyan Liu; Wei Liu; Yi Yu
• Keywords: Passivation

Alkali metals are widely studied in various fields such as medicine and battery. However, limited by the chemical reactivity electron/ion beam sensitivity, intrinsic atomic structure of alkali its fundamental properties difficult to be revealed. Here, a simple versatile method is proposed form situ inside transmission electron microscope. Taking salts starting materials trigger, can obtained directly. With this method, resolution imaging lithium sodium metal achieved at room temperature, growth visualized atomic-scale with millisecond temporal resolution. Furthermore, our observations unravel ambiguities on garnet-type solid electrolytes for lithium-metal batteries. Finally, enables direct study physical contact property well surface passivation oxide layer, which may contribute better understanding dendrite electrolyte interphase issues ion