Symposium CH03: Advanced Characterizations of Heterogeneities in Electrochemical Energy Storage Materials

Amy Marschilok, State University of New York at Stony Brook

Electrochemically Based and Coupled Characterization of Heterogeneity within Battery Electrodes and Interfaces

Written by Aashutosh Mistry

Lithium-ion batteries are one of the widely successful commercial technologies. However, we are continuously looking for new materials to make them better and potentially deploy them for new applications. Amy Marschilok and her colleagues have been examining an iron oxide material for lithium intercalation. Theoretically, it promises to substantially increase how much energy we can store for the same weight of these batteries. Additionally, iron is one of the most abundant materials, thus potentially lowering battery costs. The elegance of Marschilok’s study lies in the group’s finer control over the size of individual particles as well as their aggregation and electrode specifications. With such systematic changes in the electrode geometry combined with multiple theoretical and experimental techniques, the researchers find that both bulk phase transformations and multiple reactions at the particle-electrolyte contact combine differently to exhibit macroscopically dissimilar battery responses. Based on this understanding, the group shows that by varying liquid electrolyte composition, the bulk behavior of solid lithium-storing material can be appreciably altered.