Breaking Lithium Embrittlement in Alloy Anodes Enables Low‐Stack‐Pressure All‐Solid‐State Batteries

ABSTRACT Alloy anodes (Si, Al, In, and Sn) are exceptionally promising for realizing dendrite‐free, high‐energy‐density all‐solid‐state lithium‐ion batteries (ASSLIBs). However, even soft metals such as Al, Sn, and In form hard and brittle lithiated intermetallics upon lithiation, requiring commercially impractical stack pressures during operation. Here, we overcome limited dislocation slip in lithiated intermetallics arising from directional covalent bonding by introducing a nanoscale amorphous structure during lithiation. This mitigates the high hardness and brittleness of lithiated alloys, reducing the required stack pressure for alloy anodes from ≥30 to ≤5 MPa. The results reveal that atomically mixed In and Sn generate abundant nanoscale amorphous structures during lithiation, as mutual lattice disruption suppresses long‐range crystallization. This amorphization facilitates inter‐unit sliding and mitigates the effects of directional covalent bonding in intermetallics, thereby reducing their inherent hardness and brittleness. Consequently, the NMC83|LPSCl|(InSn 4 ) 0.64 ·(In 3 Sn) 0.36 cell (cathode areal loading: 22.37 mg cm −2 ) delivers 84.3% capacity retention over 2000 cycles at 4.0 C. After incorporating (InSn 4 ) 0.64 (In 3 Sn) 0.36 composite into Si anode, the NMC83||Si full cell sustains over 400 cycles at 5 MPa and is further validated in pouch cells. This strategy of breaking lithium embrittlement can also be extended to other alloy anodes (Al–, Sb–, and Bi–containing alloy) in ASSLIBs.

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Publication Details

Journal
Advanced Materials
Published
2026-10-08
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.75337
Primary Topic
Advanced Battery Materials and Technologies
Type
article
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article

Breaking Lithium Embrittlement in Alloy Anodes Enables Low‐Stack‐Pressure All‐Solid‐State Batteries

Shanmu Dong, Xiaowei Wu, Guanglei Cui, Yadi Li et al.
Advanced Materials
Advanced Battery Materials and Technologies
article

Breaking Lithium Embrittlement in Alloy Anodes Enables Low‐Stack‐Pressure All‐Solid‐State Batteries

Shanmu Dong, Xiaowei Wu, Guanglei Cui, Yadi Li, Lixue Zhou, Youlong Sun, Yuewei Yan, Yue Zheng, Qianru Wang, Yulin Liu, Yunpeng Li, Xinyu Lin, Tao Liu, Zhen Ding, Xinyi Huang
article en

Abstract

ABSTRACT Alloy anodes (Si, Al, In, and Sn) are exceptionally promising for realizing dendrite‐free, high‐energy‐density all‐solid‐state lithium‐ion batteries (ASSLIBs). However, even soft metals such as Al, Sn, and In form hard and brittle lithiated intermetallics upon lithiation, requiring commercially impractical stack pressures during operation. Here, we overcome limited dislocation slip in lithiated intermetallics arising from directional covalent bonding by introducing a nanoscale amorphous structure during lithiation. This mitigates the high hardness and brittleness of lithiated alloys, reducing the required stack pressure for alloy anodes from ≥30 to ≤5 MPa. The results reveal that atomically mixed In and Sn generate abundant nanoscale amorphous structures during lithiation, as mutual lattice disruption suppresses long‐range crystallization. This amorphization facilitates inter‐unit sliding and mitigates the effects of directional covalent bonding in intermetallics, thereby reducing their inherent hardness and brittleness. Consequently, the NMC83|LPSCl|(InSn 4 ) 0.64 ·(In 3 Sn) 0.36 cell (cathode areal loading: 22.37 mg cm −2 ) delivers 84.3% capacity retention over 2000 cycles at 4.0 C. After incorporating (InSn 4 ) 0.64 (In 3 Sn) 0.36 composite into Si anode, the NMC83||Si full cell sustains over 400 cycles at 5 MPa and is further validated in pouch cells. This strategy of breaking lithium embrittlement can also be extended to other alloy anodes (Al–, Sb–, and Bi–containing alloy) in ASSLIBs.

Advanced Materials
Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN), Shandong Normal University (CN), Qingdao Institute of Bioenergy and Bioprocess Technology (CN), University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN)
Openalex Percentile: Top 22%
Advanced Battery Materials and Technologies
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