The lithium-ion batteries

Researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee have developed an electrochemical microscopy strain, a new method for detecting the movement of lithium ions at the nanoscale, which could enhance the lithium-ion batteries.

Deformation of the achievements of the electrochemical microscopy can lead to larger for electric vehicles, electric cars whose durability would be much more competitive technologies.

“Ultimately, we would have a,which have more lives, a higher load capacity and higher reliability and safety,” said Mark Hersam, materials scientist and professor at Northwestern University .

Electrochemical microscopy strain was created to provide SONY VGP-BPL7 battery systems for the study of nano-scale. “Understanding the lithium-ion batteries have been hard nanoscale. … There are several groups trying to develop techniques that allow us to observe the inner workings of a lithium-ion batteries, “said Hersam.

Typical methods of electrochemical measurement of electrical current, but the threshold for measuring nano-scale is not necessary. Instead, the electrochemical microscopy deformation measurement – the number of voltages that occur in materials – because it can be detected levels, is a million times smaller.

The new method is based on previous microscopy technique called scanning probe microscopy. “We have combined technology, which was created SONY VGP-BPL8 primarily to these principles,” said Dr. Sergei Kalinin, Oak Ridge nanoscientist.

Electrochemical microscopy uses the strain of the console – the beam is supported only on one side – with a strong nano-tip was applied to the material they tested. How to tip touched the material, the structure of the with a silicon layer, displacement or electric current was applied. The electric current causes the movement of lithium ions.

In Hersam, silicon has a charge storage capacity far greater than graphite, the material most commonly used in lithium-ion batteries. However, silicon can not withstand a strong expansion and contraction of it is exposed, the lithium ions to enter and exit. “Silicon is a brittle material, and when you are the subject of a SONY VGP-BPL7 brittle material for large forces to crack,” said Hersam.

Expansion and contraction, the movement of lithium ions, the reason for the withdrawal of up and down, and the displacement is measured. Travel researchers said electrochemical process in the. “The transition between the probe and the equipment works as a very small cell,” said Kalinin.

Using a microscope, electrochemical strain at different points along the material, Kalinin and his team compared the good and the bad of the electrochemical behavior to begin the creation of good and bad materials electrochemically. “Being able to watch is not equivalent to the opportunity to see,” he said, citing the need to link the material structures with properties they own.

Understanding the relationship between structure and properties of materials, Kalinin said, will allow them to tailor the synthesis of the material for the to live longer.

Although they do not understand the depth of these links, Kalinin optimistic. “We need to demonstrate the principle,” he said. “If someone had told me two years ago that this SONY VGP-BPL8 approach to study the electrochemistry of work, I would not have believed.”