Energy Storage Science and Technology ›› 2022, Vol. 11 ›› Issue (3): 834-851.doi: 10.19799/j.cnki.2095-4239.2022.0012

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Research progress of synchrotron radiation multimodal imaging technology in field of energy storage batteries

Hanwen AN(), Shengkai MO, Menglu LI, Jiajun WANG()   

  1. School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, Heilongjiang, China
  • Received:2022-01-06 Revised:2022-01-22 Online:2022-03-05 Published:2022-03-11
  • Contact: Jiajun WANG E-mail:43178902@qq.com;jiajunhit@hit.edu.cn

Abstract:

Lithium-ion batteries have been widely applied in portable electronics due to their high energy densities. However, their potential applications in electric vehicles and grid energy storage call for higher energy density. It is a critical challenge to develop the next-generation electrochemical energy storage devices. Synchrotron X-ray imaging techniques are currently catching increasing attention due to their intrinsic advantages, including non-destructiveness, chemically responsiveness, elementally sensitivity, and high penetrability to enable operando investigation of a real battery. Based on the derived nano-tomography techniques, it can provide 3D morphological information including thousands of slice morphologies from the bulk to the surface. Combined with X-ray absorption spectroscopy, X-ray imaging can even present chemical and phase mapping information, including the oxidation state, local environment, etc., with sub-30 nm spatial resolution, which addresses the issues that we only obtain as averaged information in traditional X-ray absorption spectroscopy. Through an operando charging/discharging setup, X-ray imaging enables the study of the correlation between the morphology change and the chemical evolution (mapping) under different states of charge and cycling. In addition, X-ray imaging breaks up the size limit of nanoscale samples for the in-situ transmission electron microscope imaging, which enables a large, thick sample with a broad field of view, truly uncovering the behavior inside a real battery system. We will discuss a few major X-ray imaging technologies, including X-ray projection imaging, transmission X-ray microscopy, scanning transmission X-ray microscopy, tender and soft X-ray imaging, and coherent diffraction imaging. Researchers can choose from various X-ray imaging techniques with different working principles based on research goals and sample specifications. With the X-ray imaging techniques, we can obtain the morphology, phase, lattice and strain information of energy materials in both 2D and 3D in an intuitive way. In addition, with the high-penetration X-rays and the high-brilliance synchrotron sources, operando/in-situ experiments can be designed to track the qualitative and quantitative changes of the samples during operation. We expect this review can broaden readers' view on X-ray imaging techniques and inspire new ideas and possibilities in energy materials research.

Key words: synchrotron radiation, X-ray, lithium-ion battery, the state of art characterization technology

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