Peering into cracked cathodes

Subjects BatteriesTechniques and instrumentation Access through your institution Buy or subscribe Lithium-ion batteries can fall into two general types. Liquid-electrolyte systems, which potentially have safety concerns arising from flammability of the electrolyte, and solid-electrolyte systems, which both address these safety issues and possess increased energy density, but suffer from degradation of the cathode. Now, Xueli Zheng and colleagues investigate the complex and interlinked electro-chemo-mechanical degradation mechanisms of a layered oxide cathode (Sci. Adv. 11, eady7189; 2025).Zheng and colleagues used a full-field transmission X-ray microscope to image a NMC811 particle in its discharged state after a LixIn|Li6PS5Cl|NMC811 full battery is cycled six times. By performing three-dimensional (3D) imaging to measure Ni K-edge energy, they can image both the morphology and Ni chemical state, and so the state of charge (SOC), throughout a NMC811 particle (see image, the left two panels where blue indicates maximal discharge). The distribution of lower valence Ni states within the interior of the particle is heterogeneous, while 2D slicing of the 3D tomography (right two panels; scale bar, 1 μm) shows internal cracking. In addition, some internal domains show complete isolation as they have a high SOC compared with their surroundings (see middle column of three panels, where the top panel shows X-ray absorption, the middle panel tomography and the bottom panel the overlap of both datasets; scale bar, 3 μm). Liquid electrolytes can still access these isolated domains through infiltration, but solid electrolytes cannot, and so that capacity becomes inaccessible. Zheng and colleagues conclude that capacity decay in NMC811 arises from a vicious cycle of chemical and mechanical effects. Lithium diffusion from the sulfide electrolyte into NMC811 is heterogeneous. As each grain expands and contracts upon repeated lithiation and delithiation, cracks form between grains preventing intergranular lithium diffusion. Some domains become isolated, inducing non-uniform SOC across the particle as a whole, exacerbating mechanical stress and stress gradients, causing further crack formation. This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution Access options Access through your institution Access Nature and 54 other Nature Portfolio journals Get Nature+, our best-value online-access subscription $32.99 / 30 days cancel any time Learn more Subscribe to this journal Receive 12 print issues and online access $259.00 per year only $21.58 per issue Learn more Rent or buy this article Prices vary by article type from$1.95 to$39.95 Learn more Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout Author informationAuthors and AffiliationsNature Materials https://www.nature.com/nmat/Stephen ShevlinAuthorsStephen ShevlinView author publicationsSearch author on:PubMed Google ScholarCorresponding authorCorrespondence to Stephen Shevlin.Rights and permissionsReprints and permissionsAbout this articleCite this articleShevlin, S. Peering into cracked cathodes. Nat. Mater. (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-025-02428-yDownload citationPublished: 10 December 2025Version of record: 10 December 2025DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-025-02428-yShare this articleAnyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:Get shareable linkSorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.Copy shareable link to clipboard Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative