TEM-EELS studies of electrode materials for Li-ion batteries
Feng Wang
Sustainable Energy
Technologies Department
Brookhaven National
Laboratory
Upton NY 11973
Lithium ion batteries have become the most popular rechargeable storage devices for portable electronics, and are being intensively investigated for potential use in electrical vehicles and grid storage. Developing new materials for these demanding applications requires a better understanding of how electrode materials function by tracking electrochemical reactions in the electrodes. However, this type of characterization requires high sensitivity to Li and other constituents at relevant spatial and temporal resolution, along with the capability of capturing changes in both electronic and atomic structures. We developed a suite of electron microscopy (TEM-EELS) for determination of physical and chemical changes of high-energy electrodes. The versatility of the new approaches to track the electrochemical reaction in nanoelectrodes will be discussed along with our recent results on a variety of nanoparticle-based systems including conversion electrodes (FeF2), alloying electrodes (Si) and intercalation electrodes (Li4Ti5O12).