Real-time Studies of Battery Electrochemical Reactions Inside a Transmission Electron Microscope

Technical Report · Sun Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 2012

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/1038174· OSTI ID:1038174

Sullivan, John Patrick ^[1]; Huang, Jian Yu ^[1]; Subramanian, Arunkumar ^[1]; Liu, Xiaohua H. ^[1]; Liu, Yang ^[1]; Leung, Kevin ^[2]; Shaw, Michael J. ^[2]; Fan, Hongyou Y. ^[2]; Hudak, Nicholas S. ^[2]

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1. Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States). Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies (CINT)
2. Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)

We report the development of new experimental capabilities and ab initio modeling for real-time studies of Li-ion battery electrochemical reactions. We developed three capabilities for in-situ transmission electron microscopy (TEM) studies: a capability that uses a nanomanipulator inside the TEM to assemble electrochemical cells with ionic liquid or solid state electrolytes, a capability that uses on-chip assembly of battery components on to TEM-compatible multi-electrode arrays, and a capability that uses a TEM-compatible sealed electrochemical cell that we developed for performing in-situ TEM using volatile battery electrolytes. These capabilities were used to understand lithiation mechanisms in nanoscale battery materials, including SnO₂, Si, Ge, Al, ZnO, and MnO₂. The modeling approaches used ab initio molecular dynamics to understand early stages of ethylene carbonate reduction on lithiated-graphite and lithium surfaces and constrained density functional theory to understand ethylene carbonate reduction on passivated electrode surfaces.

• Research Organization: Sandia National Laboratories (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States). Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies (CINT)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA); USDOE Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) Program; USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
• DOE Contract Number: SC0001160; AC04-94AL85000
• OSTI ID: 1038174
• Report Number(s): SAND--2012-0103
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

25 ENERGY STORAGE
37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY
CARBONATES
ELECTROCHEMICAL CELLS
ELECTRODES
ELECTROLYTES
ELECTRON MICROSCOPES
ETHYLENE
FUNCTIONALS
LITHIUM
MOLTEN SALTS
SIMULATION
TRANSMISSION ELECTRON MICROSCOPY