A team of researchers at John’s Hopkins University,  Tohoku University and Shanghai Jiao Tong University have used Hummingbird Scientific’s Liquid Cell Electrochemistry TEM holder and have observed in-operando SEI films growth during the faster charging and discharging of Au electrode. The importance of so-called solid electrolyte interphase (SEI)  has been widely recognized in the battery community as the formation and stability of thin passivation layer influences the the overall performance of the battery cell. In this work published in Advanced Energy Materials, the researchers have tracked the SEI growth as it happens during the cycling suggesting such growth could be assisted by radical species. The SEI films degrade in the case of rapid dissolution of the inorganic layers during structural and volume changes in the electrode.

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Reference:

Chen Hou, Jiuhui Han, Pan Liu, Chuchu Yang, Gang Huang, Takeshi Fujita, Akihiko Hirata and  Mingwei Chen. “Operando Observations of SEI Film Evolution by Mass‐Sensitive Scanning Transmission Electron Microscopy,” Advanced Energy Materials (2019).