Electrochemomechanical degradation of high-capacity battery electrode materials

Enormous efforts have been undertaken to develop rechargeable batteries with new electrode materials that not only have superior energy and power densities, but also are resistant to electrochemomechanical degradation despite huge volume changes. This review surveys recent progress in the experimental and modeling studies on the electrochemomechanical phenomena in high-capacity electrode materials for lithium-ion batteries. We highlight the integration of electrochemical and mechanical characterizations, in-situ transmission electron microscopy, multiscale modeling, and other techniques in understanding the strong mechanics-electrochemistry coupling during charge-discharge cycling. While anode materials for lithium ion batteries (LIBs) are the primary focus of this review, high-capacity electrode materials for sodium ion batteries (NIBs) are also briefly reviewed for comparison. Following the mechanistic studies, design strategies including nanostructuring, nanoporosity, surface coating, and compositing for mitigation of the electrochemomechanical degradation and promotion of self-healing of high-capacity electrodes are discussed.