PhD Students Perform Experiment at Argonne National Lab to Improve Battery Cathodes
From Feb. 13-17, Nathan Nakamura and Laisuo Su, PhD students under Scott Institute Energy Fellow and Mechanical Engineering Associate Professor B. Reeja Jayan, traveled to Advanced Photon Source (APS) at Argonne National Laboratory to conduct a synchrotron experiment on LiCoO2 cathode materials for lithium-ion batteries. The results will help build understanding of polymer coatings on improving battery cathodes for advanced lithium-ion batteries.
The experiment was carried out to monitor the in-situ volume expansion and crystal lattice evolution of LiCoO2 particles during its applications at different conditions, including over-lithiation and over-delithiation. The high flux of the beamline in APS enables high temporal resolution on the order of minutes for data collection, while the high energy of the beamline enables enough penetration depth for an in-situ experiment. Each of these are necessary for the study, and cannot be conducted using a laboratory x-ray.