Why solid-state electrolytes are a search problem

A solid electrolyte has to conduct lithium fast, resist dendrite growth, and survive the sintering step that turns powder into a cell. Very few compositions clear all three at once — this part is well-established materials science, independent of anything we're building.

The constraints that bind

Ionic conductivity above roughly 10⁻³ S/cm, an electrochemical stability window that spans lithium metal, and a sinterable processing route below 1100 °C — the intersection of these three is small and does not sit where intuition suggests. Combinatorially, the candidate composition space runs to the millions; the viable region is a rounding error of that.

What we're building

The premise: trial-and-error synthesis samples this space one point at a time, while a screening model can evaluate the whole space at once and return the intersection directly. We haven't run a screen yet — Accretion Core is in development — so there is no candidate count, pass rate, or shortlist size to report honestly. That funnel exists on paper right now, not as a measured result.

When a screen actually runs, we'll publish the real funnel — candidates considered, passed screening, lab-validated — in place of this paragraph, not alongside it.