  Lithium (Li) metal anodes are essential for developing next-generation
high-energy-density batteries. However, Li dendrite/whisker formation caused
short-circuiting issue and short cycle life have prevented lithium metal from
being viably used in rechargeable batteries. Numerous works have been done to
study how to regulate the Li growth in electrochemical cycling by using
external stacking forces. While it is widely agreed that stack pressure
positively affects the lithium plating/stripping process, the optimized
pressure range provided by different works varies greatly because of the
difference in the pressure control setup. In this work, a pressure control
apparatus is designed for Li metal batteries with liquid and solid-state
electrolytes (SSE). With considerations of minimizing cell to cell variation, a
reusable split cell and pressure load cell are made for testing electrochemical
cells with high precision pressure control. The capability of the designed
setup is demonstrated by studying the pressure effect on the Li
plating/stripping process.
