4D neutron and X-ray tomography studies of high energy density primary batteries: part II. Multi-modal microscopy of LiSOCl2 cells

DOI: 10.1149/1945-7111/abbfd9

Authors: Ralf F. Ziesche (University College London; The Faraday Institution; Diamond Light Source; ISIS Facility) , James B. Robinson (University College London; The Faraday Institution) , Henning Markötter (Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin für Materialien und Energie (HZB); Technische Universität Berlin; Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und -Prüfung) , Robert Bradbury (Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin für Materialien und Energie (HZB); Technische Universität Berlin) , Alessandro Tengattini (Institut Laue-Langevin (ILL); Université Grenoble Alpes, CNRS) , Nicolas Lenoir (Université Grenoble Alpes, CNRS) , Lukas Helfen (Institut Laue-Langevin (ILL); Karlsruhe Institute of Technology) , Winfred Kockelmann (ISIS Facility) , Nikolay Kardjilov (Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin für Materialien und Energie (HZB)) , Ingo Manke (Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin für Materialien und Energie (HZB)) , Dan J. L. Brett (University College London; The Faraday Institution) , Paul Shearing (University College London; The Faraday Institution)
Co-authored by industrial partner: No

Type: Journal Paper
Journal: Journal Of The Electrochemical Society , VOL 167

State: Published (Approved)
Published: November 2020

Abstract: The ability to track electrode degradation, both spatially and temporally, is fundamental to understand performance loss during operation of lithium batteries. X-ray computed tomography can be used to follow structural and morphological changes in electrodes; however, the direct detection of electrochemical processes related to metallic lithium is difficult due to the low sensitivity to the element. In this work, 4-dimensional neutron computed tomography, which shows high contrast for lithium, is used to directly quantify the lithium diffusion process in spirally wound Li/SOCl2 primary cells. The neutron dataset enables the quantification of the lithium transport from the anode and the accumulation inside the SOCl2 cathode to be locally resolved. Complementarity between the collected neutron and X-ray computed tomographies is shown and by applying both methods in concert we have observed lithium diffusion blocking by the LiCl protection layer and identified all cell components which are difficult to distinguish using one of the methods alone.

Subject Areas: Chemistry, Energy

Facility: D50 beamline at ILL

Documents:
Ziesche_2020_J._Electrochem._Soc._167_140509.pdf