Literature Seminar:

Recent advances in electrified technology, such as electric cars, are requiring more energy dense storage. To satisfy this need, many investigations are focused on discovering new types of cathode and anode materials for batteries. To elucidate advantageous properties of these new electrode materials, common electrochemical methods and structural characterization techniques, such as galvanostatic cycling and X-ray diffraction, are used. Although these characterization techniques have provided valuable information on electrode materials, these methods are typically used ex-situ and do not allow the monitoring of reactions as the cell is cycling. Novel techniques such as in-situ Energy Dispersive X-ray Diffraction (EDXRD) can enable the mapping of electrochemical reactions in electrodes in real time while the battery is cycling with respect to current, voltage, and more importantly, location within the electrode and battery cell. This talk will focus on the use of EDXRD to investigate the inhomogeneity in electrochemical reactions across a lithium iron phosphate electrode,1 and how this technique can be used to further understand more complex electrode materials in order to optimize batteries as a whole.

(1) Strobridge, F. C.; Orvananos, B.; Croft, M.; Yu, H.-C.; Robert, R.; Liu, H.; Zhong, Z.; Connolley, T.; Drakopoulos, M.; Thornton, K.; et al. Mapping the Inhomogeneous Electrochemical Reaction Through Porous LiFePO4 -Electrodes in a Standard Coin Cell Battery. Chem. Mater. 2015, 27 (7), 2374–2386. https://doi.org/10.1021/cm504317a.