Novel Synchrotron-Based Experimental and Analytical Approaches for Energy Materials Characterisation

To develop an understanding of the fundamental phenomena that govern battery performance and failure, one must be able to probe and ultimately decouple electronic, chemical and structural transformations that span broad length and time scales, from atoms to electrodes. This presents a significant characterization challenge. Often characterization tools typically provide incomplete insights, only addressing a fraction of the relevant length/time scales or some aspects of the chemical, structural, or electronic states. Only through the development and application of a suites of complementary tools sensitive to aspects of structure, chemistry, electronic state and dynamics on appropriate scales, can we develop the comprehensive understand electrode performance needed to design improved systems. Synchrotron light sources support a broad spectrum of advanced scattering, spectroscopic and imaging-based characterization tools that can probe many different facets of battery operation at the atomic, particle and electrode level. Through the development of new synchrotron-based experimental and analytical approaches, we have been able to gain new insights into the structure of promising electrodes and electrolytes, with chemical sensitivity, across multiple length scales.