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Updated: Aug 27, 2025

Screening of Coatings for an All-Solid-State Battery Using In Situ Transmission Electron Microscopy
Published on: January 20, 2023
Surface Degradation of Single-crystalline Ni-rich Cathode and Regulation Mechanism by Atomic Layer Deposition in
Hui-Juan Guo1,2,3, Yipeng Sun4, Yang Zhao4
1Key Laboratory of Molecular Nanostructure and Nanotechnology, Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, CAS Research/Education Center for Excellence in Molecular Sciences, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190, P. R. China.
Abstract:
Single-crystalline Ni-rich cathode (SC-NCM) has attracted increasing interest owing to its greater capacity retention in advanced solid-state lithium batteries (SSLBs), while suffers from severe interfacial instability during cycling. Here, via atomic layer deposition, Li3 PO4 is introduced to coat SC-NCM (L-NCM), to suppress undesired side reaction and enhance interfacial stability. The dynamic degradation and surface regulation of SC-NCM are investigated inside a working SSLB by in situ atomic force microscopy (AFM). We directly observe the uneven cathode electrolyte interphase (CEI) and surface defects on pristine SC-NCM particle. Remarkably, the formed amorphous LiF-rich CEI on L-NCM maintains its initial structure upon cycling, and thus endows the battery with improved cycling stability and excellent rate capability. Such on-site tracking provides deep insights into surface mechanism and structure-reactivity correlation of SC-NCM, and thus benefits the optimizations of SSLBs.

