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Title: Morphological and Electrochemical Characterization of Nanostructured Li4Ti5O12 Electrodes Using Multiple Imaging Mode Synchrotron X-ray Computed Tomography

Journal Article · · Journal of the Electrochemical Society

In this study, synchrotron X-ray computed tomography has been utilized using two different imaging modes, absorption and Zernike phase contrast, to reconstruct the real three-dimensional (3D) morphology of nanostructured Li4Ti5O12 (LTO) electrodes. The morphology of the high atomic number active material has been obtained using the absorption contrast mode, whereas the percolated solid network composed of active material and carbon-doped polymer binder domain (CBD) has been obtained using the Zernike phase contrast mode. The 3D absorption contrast image revealed that some LTO nano-particles tend to agglomerate and form secondary micro-sized particles with varying degrees of sphericity. The tortuosity of electrode’s pore and solid phases were found to have directional dependence, different from Bruggeman’s tortuosity commonly used in macro-homogeneous models. The electrode’s heterogeneous structure was investigated by developing a numerical model to simulate galvanostatic discharge process using the Zernike phase contrast mode. The inclusion of CBD in the Zernike phase contrast results in an integrated percolated network of active material and CBD that is highly suited for continuum modeling. As a result, the simulation results highlight the importance of using the real 3D geometry since the spatial distribution of physical and electrochemical properties have a strong non-uniformity due to microstructural heterogeneities.

Research Organization:
Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
University of Akron; Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-06CH11357
OSTI ID:
1402041
Journal Information:
Journal of the Electrochemical Society, Vol. 164, Issue 12; ISSN 0013-4651
Publisher:
The Electrochemical SocietyCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 12 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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