Study finds key to improving battery life: Interactions between particles

According to foreign media reports, Feng Lin, an associate professor in the Department of Chemistry at Virginia Tech College of Science, and his research team found that early battery decay appears to be driven by the properties of individual electrode particles, but after dozens of charges After looping, how those particles fit together is more important.

“This study reveals the secrets of how to design and fabricate battery electrodes for long battery cycle life,” said Lin. Currently, Lin’s lab is working on redesigning battery electrodes to create fast-charging, lower-cost, Longer life and environmentally friendly electrode architecture.

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Study finds key to improving battery life: Interactions between particles
GasgooLiu Liting5小时前
According to foreign media reports, Feng Lin, an associate professor in the Department of Chemistry at Virginia Tech College of Science, and his research team found that early battery decay appears to be driven by the properties of individual electrode particles, but after dozens of charges After looping, how those particles fit together is more important.

“This study reveals the secrets of how to design and fabricate battery electrodes for long battery cycle life,” said Lin. Currently, Lin’s lab is working on redesigning battery electrodes to create fast-charging, lower-cost, Longer life and environmentally friendly electrode architecture.

Image source: Feng Lin

“When the electrode architecture allows each individual particle to respond quickly to electrical signals, we will have a great toolbox to rapidly charge batteries,” Lin said. “We are excited to enable our understanding of the next generation of low-cost fast-charging batteries. ”

The research was conducted in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Purdue University and the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility. Zhengrui Xu and Dong Ho, postdoctoral fellows in Lin’s lab, are also co-authors on the paper, leading electrode fabrication, battery fabrication, and battery performance measurements, and assisting with X-ray experiments and data analysis.

“The basic building blocks are these particles that make up battery electrodes, but when scaled up, these particles interact with each other,” said SLAC scientist Yijin Liu, a fellow at the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Light Source (SSRL). “If you want to make better batteries, you need to Know how to put particles together.”

As part of the study, Lin, Liu and other colleagues used computer vision techniques to study how the individual particles that make up the electrodes of rechargeable batteries break down over time. The goal this time is to study not just individual particles, but also the ways in which they work together to extend or reduce battery life. The ultimate goal is to learn new ways to extend the life of battery designs.

As part of the study, the team studied the battery cathode with X-rays. They used X-ray tomography to reconstruct a 3D picture of the battery’s cathode after different charging cycles. They then cut these 3D pictures into a series of 2D slices and used computer vision methods to identify the particles. In addition to Lin and Liu, the study included SSRL postdoctoral researcher Jizhou Li, Purdue University mechanical engineering professor Keije Zhao, and Purdue University graduate student Nikhil Sharma.

The researchers ultimately identified more than 2,000 individual particles, calculating not only individual particle characteristics such as size, shape, and surface roughness, but also features such as how often the particles were in direct contact with each other and how much the particles changed shape.

Next, they looked at how each property caused the particles to break down, and found that after 10 charging cycles, the biggest factors were the properties of the individual particles, including how spherical the particles were and the ratio of particle volume to surface area. After 50 cycles, however, pairing and group properties drove the particle decomposition—such as how far apart the two particles were, how much the shape changed, and whether the more elongated soccer ball-shaped particles had similar orientations.

“The reason is no longer just the particle itself, but the particle-particle interaction,” Liu said. This finding is important because it means that manufacturers can develop techniques to control these properties. For example, they might be able to use magnetic or electric fields Aligning the elongated particles with each other, the latest findings suggest that this will extend battery life.”

Lin added: “We have been intensively researching how to make EV batteries work efficiently under fast charging and low temperature conditions. In addition to designing new materials that can reduce battery costs by using cheaper and more abundant raw materials, our laboratory There has also been an ongoing effort to understand battery behavior away from equilibrium. We have begun to study battery materials and their response to harsh environments.”