In Situ Transmission Electron Microscopy: Direct Visualization of Li Dendrite Effect on LiCoO₂ Cathode by In Situ TEM (Small 52/2018)

In article number 1803108, Yingge Du and co-workers directly visualize the interaction of Li dendrites with well-defined epitaxial LiCoO2 thin films at the atomic scale using in situ transmission electron microscopy. Li atoms are shown to selectively attack the LiCoO2 crystal along the [001] direction, generating a large number of grain boundaries and anti-phase boundaries that are rich in Li2O at the reaction front. A two-step conversion reaction with CoO as a metastable intermediate is revealed in between these boundaries.