Solid-state batteries have been promising to save electric vehicles for so long that they’ve started sounding less like technology and more like a recurring motivational speech. More range, faster charging, lower weight, better safety. Great stuff, assuming anyone can actually manufacture the things without microscopic lithium spikes growing through them and causing a short circuit.
That annoying little problem is called dendrite formation, and researchers at MIT and the Technical University of Munich may have found a better way to control it. As highlighted by our friends at InsideEVs, the MIT study focuses on grain boundaries inside ceramic solid electrolytes, which are basically the microscopic seams where tiny crystalline grains meet. Those seams can disrupt the movement of lithium ions and create electrical conditions that encourage lithium metal to accumulate.
