‌On April 18‌, the internationally renowned academic journal Science published online a groundbreaking article titled ‌“Fatigue of Li Metal Anode in Solid-State Batteries”‌, with ‌Liu Yijie‌, Assistant Professor at Southwest Jiaotong University’s School of Electrical Engineering, serving as a ‌co-first author‌.

This achievement stems from the ‌deep interdisciplinary convergence‌ of electrical engineering, chemistry, materials science, and mechanics. It was collaboratively completed by the research team led by ‌Professor Wu Guangning‌ (Southwest Jiaotong University), ‌Professor Luo Wei‌ (Tongji University), and ‌Professor Huang Yunhui‌ (Huazhong University of Science and Technology).

‌Fatigue‌—a pervasive challenge in metallic materials under cyclic loading—induces micro-crack initiation and fracture failure at stress levels far below the ultimate tensile strength. The research team discovered that lithium (Li) metal anodes undergo ‌fatigue-induced failure‌ under cyclic mechanical loads caused by reversible stripping/plating (Fig. 2a), demonstrating that fatigue is an ‌intrinsic property of Li metal‌ and adheres to classical fatigue laws even in solid-state lithium batteries. This finding provides ‌novel insights‌ into the failure mechanisms of solid-state batteries, fundamentally advancing the understanding of their degradation processes.

This study not only ‌reveals that lithium metal fatigue failure is the primary cause of performance degradation in solid-state lithium batteries during cycling‌, but also ‌proposes a novel strategy to enhance cycling stability by increasing fatigue strength‌ (Fig. 2b,c). These findings provide ‌critical guidance‌ for developing next-generation solid-state batteries with ‌ultra-long cycle life‌, bridging fundamental fatigue mechanics to practical energy storage engineering.

Link to paper: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adq6807