Effects of the Physical Properties of Ionic Liquids on Lithium Dendrite Growth*

We develop a lattice Monte Carlo simulation based on the diffusion-limited aggregation model that accounts for the effect of the physical properties of ionic liquids on lithium dendrite growth. Our study focuses on the influence of IL properties, such as the size asymmetry between the cation and anion, dielectric constant, and the volume fraction of ILs, on the aspect ratio and average height of the dendrites. We show that these IL properties are critical to significantly suppress dendrite growth, primarily due to substantial changes in electric-field screening. Among others, the volume fraction of ILs has the optimal value. We also discuss that these key factors notably affect the effect of the applied voltage on the dendrite growth.