{"schema_version":1,"experiment_id":"eoa_inverse_innovation_exp12_substrate_denial72_20260805","research_id":"eoa_inverse_innovation_exp12_light_screen_20260805","cell_id":"incentive_compatible_rule_design__chemistry_materials","search_lanes":{"direct_problem_and_intervention":{"queries":["lithium metal protrusion current density electric field concentration dendrite separator pressure ion conductive membrane compression conductance","pressure responsive ion conductive membrane channel closure battery lithium dendrite suppression"],"source_ids":["SRC1","SRC2","SRC4"],"no_result_note":null},"synonyms_and_historical_terms":{"queries":["lithium separator pore closure local stress dendrite tip plating elsewhere pressure","asperity contact stress separator pore collapse lithium electrodeposition"],"source_ids":["SRC1","SRC4"],"no_result_note":null},"products_practices_and_standards":{"queries":["battery separator standard ionic resistance compression ASTM IEC","Celgard separator compression ionic resistance pressure technical paper pore closure product data"],"source_ids":["SRC3","SRC4"],"no_result_note":null},"component_combination":{"queries":["mechanically adaptive separator local pressure ionic conductivity lithium deposition uniform","lithium metal protrusion enhanced local current density tip primary experiment","zinc electrode protrusion current concentration dendrite aqueous surrogate seeded bump"],"source_ids":["SRC1","SRC2","SRC3"],"no_result_note":null}},"sources":[{"source_id":"SRC1","title":"Rethinking How External Pressure Can Suppress Dendrites in Lithium Metal Batteries","publisher":"The Electrochemical Society","url":"https://www.sandia.gov/app/uploads/sites/59/2021/03/16_Zhang_JES_2019.pdf","source_type":"PRIMARY_RESEARCH","claims_supported":["Lithium protrusions can produce dead lithium, penetrate separators, and cause short circuits.","Realistic rough lithium surfaces create heterogeneous contact stresses concentrated at tall asperities.","The authors explicitly propose that high local stress can close separator pores so lithium ions plate elsewhere, while creep flattens protrusions.","The paper therefore discloses the proposal's central passive sequence of protrusion, local compression or stress, reduced local ionic access, and spatially redirected deposition."]},{"source_id":"SRC2","title":"Modeling the Influence of the Solid Electrolyte Interphase on the Sand’s Time and Dendrite Formation on Lithium Metal Electrodes","publisher":"Springer Nature","url":"https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s44373-026-00110-9","source_type":"PRIMARY_RESEARCH","claims_supported":["A two-dimensional lithium-deposition model found greater local-current variation as protrusions became sharper.","For the modeled sharp protrusion, tip current was 117 percent greater than the applied current density, and the protrusion became more nonuniform during deposition.","Transport resistance and surface geometry can interact to amplify rather than suppress deposition nonuniformity."]},{"source_id":"SRC3","title":"ASTM D7148-19a(2025): Standard Test Method for Determining the Ionic Resistivity (ER) of Alkaline Battery Separator Using a Carbon Electrode in an Electrolyte Bath Measuring System","publisher":"ASTM International","url":"https://store.astm.org/d7148-19ar25.html","source_type":"OFFICIAL_STANDARD","claims_supported":["Separator ionic resistivity is an established quality-control and selection measurement.","Measured resistance depends on porosity, thickness, pore tortuosity, wetting, temperature, and electrolyte concentration.","The method supplies an adjacent standardized basis for repeatable separator-resistance measurements, although it is specific to alkaline separators in 40 percent potassium hydroxide and does not itself cover indentation-dependent mapping.","ASTM assigns responsibility for applicable safety, health, environmental, and regulatory practices to the experimenter."]},{"source_id":"SRC4","title":"Interfacial Pressure Improves Calendar Aging of Lithium Metal Anodes","publisher":"Frontiers Media","url":"https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/batteries-and-electrochemistry/articles/10.3389/fbael.2023.1292639/full","source_type":"PRIMARY_RESEARCH","claims_supported":["Controlled interfacial pressure is an established lithium-morphology intervention and can produce denser deposits.","The study used pressure-controlled lithium-metal pouch cells and identifies a beneficial pressure range.","The authors report that excessive pressure can promote separator-pore closure and dendritic lithium growth, showing that pressure-mediated pore closure can also be detrimental and requires bounded operating conditions."]}],"problem_evidence":{"status":"SUPPORTED","finding":"The problem is visible. Modeling shows that sharper lithium protrusions can receive substantially elevated local current and become more nonuniform, while the retained lithium literature links protrusions to dead metal, separator penetration, and short circuits. Pressure and separator-pore closure materially affect deposition morphology, although their sign and benefit depend on operating conditions.","source_ids":["SRC1","SRC2","SRC4"]},"closest_prior_art":[{"name":"Stress-induced separator-pore closure and redistribution of lithium plating","source_ids":["SRC1"],"overlap":"This is a close disclosure of the central causal mechanism: protruding asperities bear greater local stress, separator pores may close in those regions, incremental lithium ions plate elsewhere, and protrusions flatten through passive mechanics.","remaining_difference":"The proposal specifies a deliberately engineered, electronically insulating elastomer with normally open vertical channels, reversible monotonic conductance loss under incremental compression, a dimensionally stable support, and an impedance-matched strain-insensitive control. SRC1 presents conventional-separator pore collapse as a proposed explanatory mechanism and combines it with stress overpotential and lithium creep rather than isolating this engineered transfer function."},{"name":"Controlled interfacial-pressure regulation of lithium morphology","source_ids":["SRC1","SRC4"],"overlap":"Applied mechanical pressure is already used and studied as a passive way to alter lithium morphology, deposit density, local contact, and separator porosity.","remaining_difference":"Global applied pressure does not by itself establish the proposal's site-specific, reversible height-to-ionic-resistance rule; excessive pressure can instead close pores broadly and worsen dendritic growth."}],"prior_art_disposition":"SUBSTANTIAL_COLLISION","contrastive_claim_remaining":"Without asserting novelty, the remaining falsifiable distinction is that an intentionally engineered supported elastomer can exhibit a reversible negative local conductance-versus-indentation transfer function and, at matched nominal impedance, reduce the seeded-bump-to-flat incremental-growth ratio more than a geometry-matched strain-insensitive membrane. The distinction is the isolated engineered transfer function and matched causal comparison, not the general idea that protrusion pressure or separator-pore closure can redirect lithium deposition.","contrastive_claim_falsifier":"Falsify the remaining claim if conductance does not decrease monotonically and reversibly with local indentation, or if the strain-gated membrane fails to lower the bump-to-flat incremental-growth ratio relative to the strain-insensitive control at matched nominal resistance; shoulder concentration or lateral bypass producing equal or greater protrusion growth also falsifies it.","gates":{"adequate_source_search":{"status":"PASS","rationale":"The bounded search covered direct wording, dendrite/asperity and pore-collapse terminology, pressure-control practices, a separator-resistance standard, and combinations of roughness, transport resistance, compression, and deposition. Exactly four opened sources from four publishers were retained, including three primary studies and one official standard.","source_ids":["SRC1","SRC2","SRC3","SRC4"]},"supported_problem":{"status":"PASS","rationale":"The sources support local-current amplification at sharp protrusions and consequential rough growth, dead lithium, separator penetration, and short-circuit risk.","source_ids":["SRC1","SRC2","SRC4"]},"distinct_testable_claim":{"status":"PASS","rationale":"Although the central mechanism substantially collides with SRC1, the deliberately engineered reversible indentation-to-conductance response and its matched strain-insensitive comparison remain operationally distinct and directly falsifiable.","source_ids":["SRC1","SRC3"]},"bounded_next_test":{"status":"PASS","rationale":"A conductance-versus-indentation measurement followed by a small current-limited 2-by-2 aqueous-zinc study with seeded topography, matched resistance, and three independently fabricated cells per condition is bounded and yields explicit stopping criteria. ASTM D7148 supplies an adjacent repeatability framework for ionic-resistance measurement but is not directly applicable as written to the proposed zinc electrolyte.","source_ids":["SRC2","SRC3"]},"no_obvious_safety_or_authority_stop":{"status":"PASS","rationale":"No obvious categorical stop applies to the proposed openable, current-limited aqueous surrogate when conducted under qualified laboratory and institutional safety authority. Lithium metal, flammable organic electrolyte, sealed or pressurized cells, deliberate shorting, and scale-up are excluded. Leakage, abnormal gas, heating, overload, tearing, shorting, or irreversible conductance loss require de-energizing and rollback. The cited literature reinforces why pressure limits and exclusion of lithium from the first step are necessary.","source_ids":["SRC1","SRC3","SRC4"]}},"screen_survival":false,"world_novelty_boundary":"This bounded four-source screen cannot establish world novelty, patentability, freedom to operate, market size, expert acceptance, or realized value. It does establish that the broad passive mechanism already appears in public literature: local protrusion stress may close separator pores and redirect lithium plating. Searches did not establish whether the narrower supported-elastomer embodiment with deliberately reversible vertical strain-gated channels has been implemented elsewhere."}