A solid—rather than liquid—electrolyte between the opposite electrodes of a battery should, in theory, enable a rechargeable lithium metal battery that is safer, packs much more energy, and charges considerably faster than the lithium-ion batteries commercially available today.

For decades, scientists and engineers have explored several paths to realize the great promise of lithium-metal batteries. A major problem with the solid, crystalline electrolytes under study has been the formation of microscopic cracks that grow during use until the battery fails.

Stanford researchers, building on findings they published in 2023 that identified how these tiny fractures, dents, and other imperfections form and expand, have discovered that annealing an extremely thin silver coating on the solid electrolyte’s surface seems to largely solve the problem.