Fig. 3: Microstructural evolution determined via post-mortem analysis of the Ag | LLZO | Li cell.

a Charge/discharge profiles (Li content x in LixAg) and corresponding post-mortem (b) surface and (c) cross-sectional SEM images with (d) STEM-EELS spectrum image maps (Li: Red, Ag: Green, and La: Blue). e Schematics depicting the microstructural evolution during Li plating/stripping. Note that the same scale bars are used in all images in (b–c), whereas different scale bars are employed for each image in (d).