In-situ Studies of High Temperature Thermal Batteries: A Perspective

Julia L Payne,Christina J Crouch,Richard K B Gover,Kyriakos Giagloglou,Ronald I Smith,Julia D Percival,John T S Irvine,George M Carins

doi:10.3389/fenrg.2018.00121

Abstract

Here we present a perspective on in-situ studies of high temperature batteries. We focus on a primary battery technology- the thermal battery- which possesses a molten salt electrolyte. We discuss aspects of sample environment design, data collection and will briefly look at some case studies. We aim to highlight the importance of using in-situ techniques in studying electrochemical devices such as high temperature batteries.

Highlights

In recent years, the study of battery technologies using in-situ techniques has become increasingly important (Sharma et al, 2015)
With the lithium-ion battery revolutionizing the portable electronics market in recent years, it is unsurprising that the majority of these in-situ studies have focused on batteries which operate at room temperature
Most in-situ studies of batteries have focused on batteries which operate at room temperature, other battery technologies, such as the thermal battery and the sodium metal halide battery, operate at higher temperatures and require insitu studies to be carried out at elevated temperature, in order to gain a better understanding of the processes taking place in them

Summary

Introduction

The study of battery technologies using in-situ techniques has become increasingly important (Sharma et al, 2015) This has been driven by a desire for the precise understanding of the processes occurring during battery operation, which may be used to optimize batteries or inform the future synthetic targets of new battery materials with improved performance. This has been accompanied by improvements in the design of cells which allow collection of both electrochemical data and the data of interest (Bergstrom et al, 1998; Berg and Thomas, 1999; Sharma and Peterson, 2012; Roberts et al, 2013; Biendicho et al, 2014; Sharma et al, 2015; Brant et al, 2016). Batteries are required for a wide range of applications and there remain several battery technologies that have not been studied using in-situ techniques

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Conclusion