@article{Song2026, 
author = {Hucheng Song and Zixu Wang and Qingyuan Hao and Zehui Zhang and Shijie Yang and Zijie Lin and Zhihuan Li and Min Wang and Xilei Ding and Jianhui Wang and Deen Li and Guangbin Zhang and Changshun Wang and Jing Wu and Wei Li and Jun Xu},
title = {Revealing and suppressing hot spot driven interface thermal runaway for all-solid-state lithium metal batteries},
year = {2026},
journal = {Nano Research},
keywords = {all-solid-state batteries, thermal runaway, hot spots, interface design, high safety},
url = {https://www.sciopen.com/article/10.26599/NR.2026.94909025},
doi = {10.26599/NR.2026.94909025},
abstract = {All-solid-state lithium metal batteries based on non-flammable inorganic ceramic electrolytes hold promise for achieving both high energy density and safety. However, inadequate physical contact and chemical incompatibility at the Li/electrolyte interface can provoke interfacial thermal runaway far exceeding those in liquid-electrolyte batteries. Here, we employ in situ high-resolution thermal imaging to monitor thermal runaway at the Li|LATP interface in real time. Results show that after the initial contact reaction at 320 °C, the interface enters a stochastic stress-release stage, during which LATP cracks nucleate and localized hot spots form at the cracks, with the representative hot-spot region showing a temperature-rise rate of ~9.5 °C s-1 before violent ignition. Transitioning to violent ignition and combustion, the heating rate surges beyond 1943.8 °C s-1 and interfacial temperature exceeds 1500 °C, causing catastrophic thermal breakdown. In situ imaging coupled with ex situ characterization delineates a safety failure pathway wherein interfacial failure generates hot spots that drive localized thermal runaway. Guided by this, we design a dual-passivation LiI|a-Si heterogeneous interlayer that substantially suppresses interfacial heat and oxygen- containing species releasing reactions, eliminating hot spots initiation and thermal runaway at their source. The all-solid-state lithium metal symmetric batteries with this interlayer demonstrate stable cycling at 150 °C. This work paves the way for developing safe and high-energy all-solid-state batteries.}
}