Dynamics of electrochemical dendritic propagation in circular domains

The accumulation pattern in the dendritic microstructures in rechargeable batteries has a deterministic impact on their state of health and longevity. The dendrites either can cause early short-circuits or form dead lithium crystals during the prolonged charge–discharge cycles. We perform experiments, combined with percolation-based computations in parallel, to anticipate the dynamics in the state and rate of propagation of dendritic microstructures, in a circular domain. Subsequently, we develop a physical paradigm to correlate and verify the non-linear behavior in the growth dynamics. Coupling two approaches, we elaborate further on the location of the minimum growth rate, anticipate the main drive factor for microstructures, and get an estimation for the atomic-scale porosity. Additionally, we elaborate further on the role of curvature and the inter-electrode gap in enhancing/deviating from the typical Cottrell behavior. The established framework could be useful for designing the space of parameters for cell geometry, the electrolyte, as well as the charging condition to optimize for healthy operation and avoiding short-circuit.