(Invited) Neutrons as a Powerful Tool for Better Understanding Electrochemistry on Various Length and Time Scales

Abstract

Today, sophisticated methods are applied to gain a deeper understanding of processes in in-situ electrochemistry. There are few ways to study electrochemically relevant processes on different length and/or time scales without affecting the processes themselves. Probes that cover a sufficient volume of the sample non-destructively and are sensitive to the important charge carriers are in great demand. For such purposes, neutrons are an ideal candidate to perform this task because they have relatively high sensitivity to the light chemical elements, can distinguish neighboring elements of the periodic table, have a large beam cross-section, and possess high penetration depth for many types of materials.Therefore, many open questions are addressed to unique neutron techniques tailored to solve the open problems. This article gives an overview of some examples to show the advantages of using neutrons for special questions on different length and time scales [1]. For surface investigations of electrodes, the neutron depth profiling method (NDP) is suitable for characterizing the Li distribution up to the nano range [2]. Neutron diffraction is a powerful tool to better understand cylindrical cells at the atomic level, e.g. during the intercalation process [3]. Another strong field of neutrons is the monitoring of the wetting process during the electrolyte filling of prismatic hard case cells on the macroscopic length scale using the neutron imaging technique [4].