Protection of lithium metal surfaces using tetraethoxysilaneElectronic supplementary information (ESI) available: Table S1. See DOI: 10.1039/c0jm02305aThis paper is part of a Journal of Materials Chemistry themed issue in celebration of the 70th birthday of Professor Fred Wudl

We report the formation of an electrochemically stable protective film for lithium electrodes by reacting lithium with tetraethoxysilane. Li/Li cell tests show that coated electrodes exhibit stable plating and stripping of Li at 1 mA/cm 2 for 100 cycles without any change in cell impedance. A lithium electrode with stable electrochemical properties is obtained by reacting tetraethoxysilane with lithium to form a protective thin film.