This talk will briefly describe existing battery technologies and how they can be used to increase energy efficiency in transport and grid applications. Our work in the development of methods that allow devices to be probed while they are operating will be described. This allows the transformations of the various cell components to be followed under realistic conditions without having to disassemble and take apart the cell.
The application of new in and ex-situ Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) approaches to correlate structure and dynamics with function in lithium-ion and lithium air batteries and supercapacitors will also be described.
The in-situ approach allows processes to be captured, which are very difficult to detect directly by ex-situ methods e.g. detecting side reactions involving the electrolyte and the electrode materials, sorption processes at the electrolyte-electrode interface, and processes that occur during extremely fast charging and discharging. Ex-situ NMR investigations allow more detailed structural studies to be performed to correlate local and long-range structure with performance in battery materials.
RELEVANT PAPER
High-rate Intercalation without Nanostructuring in Metastable Nb2O5 Bronze Phases J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2016, 138, 8888.
E cpg27@cam.ac.uk
T 01223 336509
W www.ch.cam.ac.uk/group/grey