Nanoscale ion diffusion behavior in Li-ion battery revealed

(Oak Ridge National Laboratory/Nature Nanotechnology)

Credit: Kalinin et al., Oak Ridge National Laboratory

A research team has developed a new type of scanning probe microscopy called electrochemical strain microscopy (ESM) to examine the movement of lithium ions through a battery's cathode material. The method can provide a detailed picture of ionic motion in nanometer volumes, which exceeds state-of-the-art electrochemical techniques by six to seven orders of magnitude. They achieved the results by applying voltage with an ESM probe to the surface of the battery's layered cathode. By measuring the corresponding electrochemical strain, or volume change, the team was able to visualize how lithium ions flowed through the material. Conventional electrochemical techniques, which analyze electric current instead of strain, do not work on a nanoscale level because the electrochemical currents are too small to measure. These are the first measurements of lithium ion flow at this spatial resolution, according to the authors. The team's ESM imaging can display features such as individual grains, grain clusters and defects within the cathode material. The high-resolution mapping showed, for example, that the lithium ion flow can concentrate along grain boundaries, which could lead to cracking and battery failure.

Nanoscale mapping of ion diffusion in a lithium-ion battery cathode
Nature Nanotechnology Published online: 29 August 2010. DOI:10.1038/nnano.2010.174

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Gopal R. Rao, Ph.D.
Web Science Editor
Materials Research Society (MRS)

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