Original title: Effect of Stress and Surface Roughness on Electrodeposition in All-Solid-State Batteries: A Computational Investigation
Kaniza Islam, Ayush Morchhale, Jung-Hyun Kim, Yanzhou Ji +1 · September 2026
All-solid-state batteries should be safer and hold more energy than regular batteries. However, lithium can push through stiff solid electrolytes and ruin them. This problem often starts at tiny rough spots on the contact surface between the lithium metal and the electrolyte. Researchers built a two-dimensional computer model to see how roughness, pressure, and electric current interact in an argyrodite electrolyte. They found that sharp changes in mechanical stress near tall bumps cause lithium to build up unevenly. Without these stress changes, lithium deposits smoothly, even across a rough surface. When current is low relative to exchange current, stress drives this uneven build-up. The team suggests designing artificial layers between the materials to improve battery life.
Imagine pressing a rubber ball against a bumpy table. Where the ball touches a bump, the rubber stretches more and presses harder. If you push down evenly, the ball deforms only at those bumps. Now imagine the ball is lithium metal and the table is the solid electrolyte. The bumps create concentrated stress, which makes lithium deposit faster there, causing uneven growth. In this paper, the computer model shows that this stress, not just the bumps, is what causes the problem.
All-solid-state batteries could power safer, longer-lasting electric cars and phones. But they fail when lithium metal penetrates the solid electrolyte, often starting at tiny surface bumps. This research shows that mechanical stress around those bumps is the real culprit, not just the bumps themselves, pointing to ways to prevent failure by engineering the interface.
The abstract does not specify the exact material properties or boundary conditions used in the model, nor does it validate the model against experimental data. It also does not quantify how much artificial interlayers improve performance or discuss long-term cycling behavior beyond the initial deposition.
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Effect of Stress and Surface Roughness on Electrodeposition in All-Solid-State Batteries: A Computational Investigation — Kaniza Islam, Ayush Morchhale, Jung-Hyun Kim et al.
Abstract licence: CC0
Explanation generated by Synthesis from the abstract — it is not the original paper. This is a preprint, so it hasn't necessarily been peer reviewed.