Figure 5: Electrode crack arrest by the reduction products of electrolyte additives.
From: Failure mechanisms of single-crystal silicon electrodes in lithium-ion batteries
Top-view and cross-sectional scanning electron microscope images of a Si(100) electrode cycled between 2.0 and 0.01 V for 30 cycles at a scan rate of 0.01 mV s−1 in EC/DEC/lithium hexafluorophosphate (LiPF6) electrolyte with (a–c) 5% vinylene carbonate (VC) additive and (d–f) 5% fluoroethylene carbonate (FEC) additive. The dashed rectangles shown in b and e indicate the focused-ion-beam milling area. The reduction products of the VC and FEI additives (poly-VC and ROCO2Li, respectively) modify the mechanical properties of the solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) film and inhibit crack growth. Scale bar, 100 μm (a,d); 20 μm (b,e); 300 nm (c); 3 μm (f).
