Nature paper finds lithium ions cluster in battery electrolytes, with no anions bound

16 October 2026

A paper published in Nature on 14 October 2026, with Richard A. Friesner of Columbia University as corresponding author, reports evidence for multi-lithium-ion clustering in lithium-ion battery electrolytes. The team combined machine-learning-enabled atomistic simulations, nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, electrochemical data and quantum-chemical calculations. They identify complexes holding several lithium ions, with no bound anions, coordinated only by ethylene carbonate, and describe these complexes as uniquely facile for reduction. In the simulations the share of lithium ions sitting in such clusters rises from about 23 per cent at 0.5 molar concentration to over 68 per cent at 2 molar. The machine-learning force field was fitted only to gas-phase cluster calculations yet reproduced a range of condensed-phase measurements. The authors present the role of these clusters in solid electrolyte interphase formation as a hypothesis rather than a demonstrated result.