Solid Electrolyte Interphase Growth in Lithium Metal Cells With Normal Electrolyte Flow

In high energy density lithium metal batteries (LMBs), dendrite and solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) growth reduce safety and longevity, respectively. A stable SEI layer enables high efficiency cycling but continued SEI growth can lead to reduced capacity and coulombic efficiency. In this paper, we develop a steady-state model that predicts the effect of small advective electrolyte flow towards the lithium metal electrode on SEI growth during charging. For a fixed current density, increasing the electrolyte flow rate improves the coulombic efficiency and decreases SEI layer growth rate. Decreasing the charging current density at a constant flow rate also decreases the SEI layer growth rate. Low flow rates (μm/s) can increase coulombic efficiency by up to 6%. The sensitivity of the coulombic efficiency to plating and SEI layer reaction rates is also explored.