Visualization of Charge Distribution in a Lithium Battery Electrode

Nanoscale imaging of lithium ion distribution during in situ operation of battery electrode and electrolyte.

A major challenge in the development of new battery materials is understanding their fundamental mechanisms of operation and degradation. Their microscopically inhomogeneous nature calls for characterization tools that provide operando and localized information from individual grains and particles. Here, we describe an approach that enables imaging the nanoscale distribution of ions during elec...

The application of graphene in lithium ion battery electrode materials

Graphene is composed of a single atomic layer of carbon which has excellent mechanical, electrical and optical properties. It has the potential to be widely used in the fields of physics, chemistry, information, energy and device manufacturing. In this paper, we briefly review the concept, structure, properties, preparation methods of graphene and its application in lithium ion batteries. A con...

Mechanics of electrode materials in lithium battery applications

Hierarchically porous graphene as a lithium-air battery electrode.

The lithium-air battery is one of the most promising technologies among various electrochemical energy storage systems. We demonstrate that a novel air electrode consisting of an unusual hierarchical arrangement of functionalized graphene sheets (with no catalyst) delivers an exceptionally high capacity of 15000 mAh/g in lithium-O(2) batteries which is the highest value ever reported in this fi...

The reaction current distribution in battery electrode materials revealed by XPS-based state-of-charge mapping.

Morphologically complex electrochemical systems such as composite or nanostructured lithium ion battery electrodes exhibit spatially inhomogeneous internal current distributions, particularly when driven at high total currents, due to resistances in the electrodes and electrolyte, distributions of diffusion path lengths, and nonlinear current-voltage characteristics. Measuring and controlling t...