Corelative Imaging of Battery Heterogeneities: Ionic Transport, Electronic Structure and Chemistry

Abstract

Deeper understanding of the heterogeneities, an intrinsic characteristic in batteries, including ionic transport, and chemical and electronic structures at interface and bulk of active materials and its dependence on other components in a battery is crucial for developing better performance batteries, especially for electric transportation purposes. Element specific X-ray absorption near-edge structures (XANES) spectroscopy, explores detailed information on the local chemistry and electronic states of the absorbing atom which makes it an excellent tool to understand chemical bonding, electronic structure, and surface and bulk chemistry difference in batteries. XANES with nano-focused X-ray beam (STXM) and surface sensitive field-imaging X-PEEM can collect chemical imaging of high chemical sensitivity with good spatial resolutions. In this talk I will show nanoscale chemical imaging studies of battery materials by STXM and X-PEEM at CLS. The emphasis is imaging inhomogeneity under “normal” or abusive conditions in a commercial like electrode with preserved interface structure. The studies show that the battery heterogeneity is an interplay of local environment, morphology and facet orientation of electrode active materials. Such novel characterization tools shall lead new insights on battery engineering toward a better battery with high performance, long service life and high safety.