Dendrites in Solid-State Batteries: Ion Transport Behavior, Advanced Characterization, and Interface Regulation

Solid-state electrolytes (SSEs) are attracting growing interest for next-generation Li-metal batteries with theoretically high energy density, but they currently suffer from safety concerns caused by dendrite growth, hindering their commercial applications. Interfaces between SSEs and solid lithium are argued to be crucial, affecting dendrite growth and determining solid-state batteries (SSBs) performance. The buried and localized nature of the interface poses a huge challenge for direct characterization under working conditions. Recent review articles have been devoted to evaluating the conductivity and chemical stability of SSEs. Recognizing this, in this Review, the focus is on understanding lithium dendrite beyond conventional factors and offering a perspective on various surface/interface and microstructural phenomena that require close attention by both experimentalists and theoreticians. The complicated ion-transport mechanism and chemomechanical information correlated with interface and lithium dendrite are discussed. Rational solutions are provided to engineer functional interfaces to suppress lithium dendrites and accelerate progress towards the commercialization of SSBs.