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Title: In Situ Observation of Single-Phase Lithium Intercalation in Sub-25-nm Nanoparticles

Journal Article · · Advanced Materials
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [1]
  1. Univ. of Pittsburgh, PA (United States). Dept. of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science
  2. Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States). Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies
  3. Zhejiang Univ., Hangzhou (China). School of Materials Science and Engineering
  4. Yanshan Univ., Qin Huang Dao, Hebei Province (China). Nano Energy Center, State Key Lab. of Metastable Materials Science and Technology

Although a non-equilibrium single-phase reaction, with the absence of nucleation and growth of a second phase, is believed to be a key factor for high-rate performance of lithium-ion batteries, it is thermodynamically unfavorable and usually proceeds in electrode materials with small particle sizes (tens of nanometers). Unfortunately, the phase evolutions inside such small particles are often shrouded by the macroscopic inhomogeneous reactions of electrodes containing millions of particles, leading to intensive debate over the size-dependent microscopic reaction mechanisms. Here, we provide a generally applicable methodology based on in-situ electron diffraction study on a multi-particle system to track the lithiation pathways in individual nanoparticles, and unambiguously reveal that lithiation of anatase TiO2, previously long believed to be biphasic, converts to a single-phase reaction when the particle size is below ~25 nm. Our results imply the prevalence of such a size-dependent transition in lithiation mechanism among intercalation compounds whose lithium miscibility gaps are associated with a prominent size effect, and therefore provide important guidelines for designing high-power electrodes, especially cathodes.

Research Organization:
Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC04-94AL85000; SC0001160; DESC0001160
OSTI ID:
1399872
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1401791
Report Number(s):
SAND-2016-7630J; 646434; TRN: US1702855
Journal Information:
Advanced Materials, Vol. 29, Issue 26; ISSN 0935-9648
Publisher:
WileyCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 13 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Cited By (5)

Review of Recent Development of In Situ/Operando Characterization Techniques for Lithium Battery Research journal May 2019
Atomic-Scale Monitoring of Electrode Materials in Lithium-Ion Batteries using In Situ Transmission Electron Microscopy journal October 2017
Three-dimensional atomic-scale observation of structural evolution of cathode material in a working all-solid-state battery journal August 2018
A new strategy for the construction of 3D TiO 2 nanowires/reduced graphene oxide for high-performance lithium/sodium batteries journal January 2018
Liquid cell transmission electron microscopy and its applications journal January 2020

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