Non-Ambient in-Operando X-Ray Diffraction Study of Li-Ion Batteries on Laboratory Diffractometers

Abstract

A long outstanding issue when pushing the performance of batteries is the degradation during cycling. Understanding the pertinent mechanisms becomes increasingly significant to tackle them and consequently facilitate the discovery of high-performance batteries that meet the requirements for multiple applications. In operando X-ray diffraction (XRD) is a non-destructive technique which can be used to study the non-equilibrium states of a complete battery cell during cycling by essentially tracing the structure changes. In this talk, we will showcase how high-quality XRD data of Li-ion batteries can be quickly collected and analysed during charge-discharge cycles in transmission geometry on the laboratory diffractometer equipped with an X-ray tube with Ag or Mo anode and an area detector optimized for high energy X-rays. Temperature effects on the performance and life of batteries will be discussed based on the temperature-dependent XRD data collected during the charge-discharge cycling of batteries. Quantification of the structural changes from both cathode and anode materials can be done to essentially understand the structure-property relationship of a complete battery cell.