Evolution and Degradation Patterns of Electrochemical Cells Based on the Analysis of Interfacial Phenomena at Li Metal Anode/Electrolyte Interfaces.

In this work, we report the results of a theoretical-computational analysis of the solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) growth and degradation dynamics occurring in lithium metal batteries during cycling. We use ab initio-kinetic Monte Carlo simulations to generate a synthetic data set, which is analyzed by machine learning methods. We aim to determine: (i) how modifications in interfacial interaction energies between solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) blocks and between Li ions and SEI facets impact the Coulombic efficiency (CE) of the battery and (ii) what factors, including reactions, microscopic transport, and other interfacial events, may lead to cell performance "failure" during prolonged charge and discharge cycles, signaled as a sharp decay in the CE over cycling. The demonstration of our approach is done on a cell including a Li metal surface interfacing with a previously introduced state-of-the-art electrolyte, and the idea can be applied to any electrochemical system. Outcomes include the identification of the leading chemical, physical, and structural variables causing cell failure and relating them to the electrolyte formulation, thus paving the way to future more refined analysis and electrolyte design.