Abstract
We present non-destructive and non-invasive in operando X-ray tomographic investigations of the charge and discharge behavior of rechargeable alkaline-manganese (RAM) batteries (Zn-MnO2 batteries). Changes in the three-dimensional structure of the zinc anode and the MnO2 cathode material after several charge/discharge cycles were analyzed. Battery discharge leads to a decrease in the zinc particle sizes, revealing a layer-by-layer dissolving behavior. During charging, the particles grow again to almost their initial size and shape. After several cycles, the particles sizes slowly decrease until most of the particles become smaller than the spatial resolution of the tomography. Furthermore, the number of cracks in the MnO2 bulk continuously increases and the separator changes its shape. The results are compared to the behavior of a conventional primary cell that was also charged and discharged several times.
Highlights
The development of new energy storage materials and systems is currently one of the most important challenges in materials research
The anode was made of a mixture of zinc powder and an electrolyte, and it was injected into the shell
Dissolution continuously progresses until most of the zinc particles havedevelopment been dissolved into small particlesinthat a homogeneous gel in the the deformation resulted in the of pointy structures theform separator region between electrolyte
Summary
The development of new energy storage materials and systems is currently one of the most important challenges in materials research. Horn et al have developed a dedicated preparation technique [14] All these measurement techniques do not allow for an in situ study of the material inside the entire volume of the battery. Imaging techniques based on X-rays have been successfully used to study battery materials [17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26,27,28,29] Since these techniques are non-destructive and non-invasive, they are especially suited for in situ or in operando measurements [30,31,32,33].
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