In case study 1, ex situ micro-CT was acquired using a ZEISS Xradia 620 Versa at the UCL Centre for Correlative X-ray Microscopy. The samples consisted of an NMC811 cathode that had been harvested from a commercial cell (LiFun Technologies, China). An 80 × 250 µm protrusion, or tab, was laser cut at the top of the electrode. This tab geometry is ideal for tomographic imaging that has been used in previous studies . This laser cut, pristine, ex-situ electrode was then mounted in the microscope and the tab was centred in the FOV for imaging. A total of 1601 projections were acquired over a 360 degree angular range and each projection had an exposure time of 45 s. An 80 kV accelerating voltage was used to create an X-ray beam that illuminated the sample at a source-to-sample distance of 30.49 mm. The 40 × objective lens coupled with the 2048 px CCD detector was used at a sample-to-detector distance of 16.48 mm, this resulted in a pixel size of 220.3 nm. Once the tomogram was acquired, this electrode was removed and assembled into a single-layer pouch cell. The cell was then charged to 4.5 V at a rate of C/50. The pouch cell was then disassembled, the electrode removed, and then re-imaged using the same acquisition parameters as described above for the pristine state.