The results show how a particle’s surface and interior influence each other, an important thing to know when developing more robust batteries.
The particles that make up lithium-ion battery electrodes are microscopic but mighty: They determine how much charge the battery can store, how fast it charges and discharges and how it holds up over time – all crucial for high performance in an electric vehicle or electronic device.
Cracks and chemical reactions on a particle’s surface can degrade performance, and the whole particle’s ability to absorb and release lithium ions also changes over time. Scientists have studied both, but until now they had never looked at both the surface and the interior of an individual particle to see how what happens in one affects the other.
Read more on the SSRL (SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory) website
Image: Images made with an X-ray microscope show particles within a nickel-rich layered oxide battery electrode (left). In a SLAC study, scientists welded a single charged particle to the tip of a tungsten needle (right) so they could probe its surface and interior with two X-ray instruments. The particle is about the size of a red blood cell. (S. Li et al., Nature Communications, 2020)