Research Digest — 2026-07-19¶
Solid Electrolytes & Roadmaps¶
1. 2026 Roadmap on Next-Generation Solid Electrolytes for Battery Applications¶
Source: Materials Futures (10.1088/2752-5724/ae5120) · 📅 2026-07-01 · ↗ Open paper
A comprehensive community roadmap outlining future directions in solid electrolyte research, covering hydroborate, compositionally complex, sulfide, halide, and polymer SEs. Includes perspectives on high-throughput experimentation, modeling/simulation, and ML-driven SE design. Highlights redox-active halide SEs for lithium-sulfur and lithium-ion batteries and identifies manufacturing scalability as a key bottleneck.
Relevance to DENG.Group
Must-read strategic document for the entire group. Maps directly to the group's research themes across polymer (Naibing), halide (Yan Li, Mengke), ML (Yanhao), interfaces (Umang), and grain boundaries (Cheng). Useful for positioning group strategy and grant proposals.
2. Solid-state electrolytes for next-generation batteries: Recent advances and interfacial challenges¶
Source: Journal of Power Sources (S0378775325017069) · 📅 2026-06-15 · ↗ Open paper
Review covering the evolution and recent advances in composite solid-state electrolytes, with emphasis on material design, interfacial engineering, and performance optimization. Discusses strategies for reducing interfacial resistance and improving cycling stability.
Relevance to DENG.Group
Provides broad context for the group's solid electrolyte research. The interfacial engineering strategies are relevant to Umang's interface work and the composite approach connects to Naibing's polymer/composite simulations.
3. Modeling and simulation approaches for solid-state battery interfaces¶
Source: Dalton Transactions (D5DT02804C) · 📅 2026-01-01 · ↗ Open paper
A comprehensive review of theoretical and computational methods for studying SSB interfaces, covering continuum, atomistic, and multiscale approaches. Discusses interface behavior, performance-limiting factors, and strategies for rational interface design including chemo-mechanical coupling.
Relevance to DENG.Group
Core reference for Umang's heterogeneous interface research. Also relevant to Cheng Peng's grain boundary work and Shoutong's dendrite simulations. Provides a methodological overview that could guide computational approach selection.
Halide Solid Electrolytes¶
4. A moisture stable high-entropy halide electrolyte with performance retention¶
Source: Materials Horizons (D6MH00223D), 13(12): 5926-5936 · 📅 2026-06-15 · ↗ Open paper
Addresses the critical challenge of poor moisture stability in halide solid electrolytes through a high-entropy design strategy. The high-entropy halide electrolyte demonstrates improved moisture resistance while maintaining competitive ionic conductivity, offering a practical pathway for halide-based ASSBs.
Relevance to DENG.Group
Highly relevant to Yan Li and Mengke Li's halide electrolyte research. The high-entropy design paradigm is amenable to computational exploration of the configurational space. Directly addresses the moisture stability bottleneck the group studies.
5. Challenges of the infiltration method for halide-based solid-state batteries¶
Source: Scientific Reports (s41598-026-47289-w) · 📅 2026-06-20 · ↗ Open paper
Investigates the infiltration method for fabricating halide-based solid-state batteries, identifying challenges in achieving good interfacial contact and uniform active material distribution. Provides insights into processing-structure-property relationships affecting halide SSE performance in practical device configurations.
Relevance to DENG.Group
Relevant to Yan Li and Mengke Li's halide electrolyte work. Understanding fabrication challenges complements their computational studies of ion transport and degradation mechanisms.
6. From Promise to Production: Strategy for Halide-Based All-Solid-State Battery Pilot Lines¶
Source: Advanced Energy Materials (aenm.202505286) · 📅 2026-06-10 · ↗ Open paper
Charts a strategic roadmap for developing halide-based ASSB pilot lines, covering manufacturing scalability, cost analysis, and performance targets. Highlights how halide SEs can bridge the gap from lab-scale research to commercial production and identifies key scaling challenges.
Relevance to DENG.Group
Relevant to Yan Li and Mengke Li's halide research. Provides commercialization context that informs which fundamental problems are most impactful to study.
ML Interatomic Potentials¶
7. Machine learning interatomic potential enables interface-level insights into cathode/solid electrolyte adhesion in sodium-ion batteries¶
Source: Journal of Energy Storage (S2352152X26007681) · 📅 2026-06-20 · ↗ Open paper
Applies ML interatomic potentials to study adhesion at the cathode/solid electrolyte interface in sodium-ion batteries, providing atomistic-level insights into interfacial stability. Demonstrates how MLIPs bridge the gap between DFT accuracy and the large-scale simulations needed for realistic interface geometries.
Relevance to DENG.Group
Directly relevant to Yanhao's ML potential work and Umang's interface research. The MLIP-based interface methodology could be directly transferred to Li-ion solid electrolyte systems the group studies.
8. Machine learning pipelines for the design of solid-state electrolytes¶
Source: Materials Horizons (D5MH01525A) · 📅 2026-01-15 · ↗ Open paper
Comprehensive survey of ML pipelines for SE design, covering data resources, feature engineering, classical models, deep learning architectures, and emerging approaches. Provides a systematic framework for applying ML to accelerate solid electrolyte discovery and optimization.
Relevance to DENG.Group
Directly relevant to Yanhao's ML interatomic potential work. The pipeline framework could guide systematic approaches to screening and optimizing solid electrolyte compositions in the group.
9. Performance-Based Selection of Machine Learning Interatomic Potentials¶
Source: Chemistry of Materials (acs.chemmater.5c02352) · 📅 2026-01-10 · ↗ Open paper
Proposes a systematic, performance-based framework for selecting ML interatomic potentials, comparing accuracy and computational efficiency across different architectures. The benchmarking approach helps researchers choose appropriate MLIPs for specific materials science applications.
Relevance to DENG.Group
Highly relevant to Yanhao's work. Provides benchmarking methodology that could be adopted for evaluating MLIPs for solid electrolyte and electrode applications.
Polymer Electrolytes¶
10. Self-healable bio-based solid polymer electrolytes incorporating functional additives¶
Source: Materials Advances (D6MA00073H) · 📅 2026-06-01 · ↗ Open paper
Reports self-healable bio-based solid polymer electrolytes with ionic conductivity of 10^-3 S cm^-1 at elevated temperatures, incorporating functional additives. The self-healing mechanism offers a route to improving long-term durability of polymer electrolytes.
Relevance to DENG.Group
Relevant to Naibing Wu's solid polymer electrolyte and composite simulation work. The self-healing concept and bio-based polymer design represent new directions that could inspire computational studies.
11. Polymer-Assisted Supercooled Lithium Salts: Nonflammable Single-Ion Conducting Liquid Electrolytes¶
Source: Advanced Energy Materials (aenm.202505229) · 📅 2026-05-20 · ↗ Open paper
Introduces polymer-assisted supercooled lithium salts as a new class of nonflammable single-ion conducting liquid electrolytes, combining the safety of solid electrolytes with the processability of liquids. Bridges the gap between polymer and liquid electrolyte design paradigms.
Relevance to DENG.Group
Relevant to Naibing's polymer electrolyte work. The supercooled salt concept represents an interesting hybrid approach that could inspire new MD simulation studies of ion transport mechanisms.
Dendrite Growth & Phase Field Simulation¶
12. Mechanically driven Li dendrite penetration in garnet solid electrolyte¶
Source: Nature (s41586-026-10415-9) · 📅 2026-06-15 · ↗ Open paper
Uses multiscale cryogenic electron microscopy to investigate fracture processes driven by lithium dendrites in garnet electrolytes. Reveals the mechanical driving forces behind dendrite penetration, providing new insights into the chemo-mechanical coupling that governs dendrite-induced failure in solid electrolytes.
Relevance to DENG.Group
Highly relevant to Shoutong Jin's phase field simulation of dendrite growth. The experimental observations of mechanically-driven fracture provide validation targets for computational models. Also relevant to Cheng Peng's grain boundary work.
13. Multiphysics Modeling and Analysis for Dendrite Problems in Solid-State Lithium/Sodium Metal Batteries¶
Source: Nano-Micro Letters (2026), 18, 414 · 📅 2026-06-20 · ↗ Open paper
Develops a chemo-mechanical coupling phase-field model for lithium dendrite growth within solid electrolytes, incorporating electrochemical and mechanical driving forces. The multiphysics framework enables systematic analysis of factors controlling dendrite nucleation, growth, and penetration.
Relevance to DENG.Group
Directly relevant to Shoutong Jin's phase field simulation work. The chemo-mechanical coupling approach could directly inform or complement his dendrite growth models.
14. Atomic mechanism of lithium dendrite penetration in solid electrolytes¶
Source: Nature Communications (s41467-025-57259-x) · 📅 2025-12-20 · ↗ Open paper
Reveals that dynamically generated lithium depositions lead to continuous accumulation of internal stress, culminating in fracture of the solid electrolyte. Provides atomic-scale mechanistic understanding of how Li dendrites propagate through SEs, connecting electrochemical deposition with mechanical failure.
Relevance to DENG.Group
Highly relevant to Shoutong's dendrite simulation work. The atomic-scale mechanism provides direct comparison points for phase-field and atomistic simulations of dendrite penetration.
Grain Boundaries in Solid Electrolytes¶
15. Grain Boundaries in Ceramic Solid-State Lithium Metal Batteries¶
Source: Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research (acs.iecr.5c03294) · 📅 2026-06-01 · ↗ Open paper
Comprehensive review exploring the multifaceted influence of grain boundaries in ceramic solid electrolytes and metal anodes, including their impact on ionic and electronic conductivity, mechanical properties, and dendrite susceptibility. Covers strategies for grain boundary engineering to improve performance.
Relevance to DENG.Group
Core reference for Cheng Peng's grain boundary research in solid electrolytes. Provides a systematic overview of how GB properties affect transport and stability, directly relevant to his simulation work.