  The decomposition of ethylene carbonate (EC) during the initial growth of
solid-electrolyte interphase (SEI) films at the solvent-graphitic anode
interface is critical to lithium ion battery operations. Ab initio molecular
dynamics simulations of explicit liquid EC/graphite interfaces are conducted to
study these electrochemical reactions. We show that carbon edge terminations
are crucial at this stage, and that achievable experimental conditions can lead
to surprisingly fast EC breakdown mechanisms, yielding decomposition products
seen in experiments but not previously predicted.
