Silicon offers great promise as a potential anode active material and the optimum alternative to lithium metal in all-solid-state lithium-ion batteries. However, its practical application is limited by severe volume expansion (~300%) during lithiation, leading to cracking upon delithiation. In this study, we investigated the microstructural evolution of microcrystalline silicon electrodes in a solid-electrolyte-free environment using cryogenic scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) during electrochemical cycling. A controlled workflow prevents ambient exposure, and cryo-TEM ensures structural integrity. After the first lithiation, the electrode shows a heterogeneous mix of crystalline Li15Si4, various amorphous LixSi phases, and residual crystalline silicon. After delithiation, the structure becomes predominantly amorphous with thread-like features and minimal remaining crystallinity. By the 10th delithiation, the microstructure is more uniform, with thread-like regions mainly at grain boundaries. Our results reveal that starting from a crystalline phase, a stationary microstructure emerges in bulk silicon only after several cycles. Thus, to have a more controlled behavior of the electrode and minimize cracking, the starting material should be carefully chosen along with an optimized electrode architecture to help stabilize the microstructure throughout cycling.
@article{arxiv.2507.16561,
title = {Microstructure of Silicon Anodes in Solid-State Batteries -- From Crystalline to Amorphous},
author = {Shamail Ahmed and Federico Rossi and Hanyu Huo and Johannes Haust and Franziska Hueppe and Juergen Belz and Andreas Beyer and Juergen Janek and Kerstin Volz},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2507.16561},
year = {2025}
}