1. Localized concentration reversal of lithium during intercalation into nanoparticles
- Author
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Aziz Abdellahi, Yimei Zhu, Wei Zhang, Xufeng Zhou, Bernardo Orvananos, Feng Wang, Clare P. Grey, Lijun Wu, Bao Qiu, Gerbrand Ceder, Fiona C. Strobridge, Katsuyo Thornton, Zhaoping Liu, Jianming Bai, Hao Liu, Hui-Chia Yu, Zhang, Wei [0000-0001-7031-162X], Yu, Hui-Chia [0000-0002-4351-3581], Wu, Lijun [0000-0002-8443-250X], Liu, Hao [0000-0003-0345-6647], Abdellahi, Aziz [0000-0001-8046-4996], Qiu, Bao [0000-0002-7505-6135], Bai, Jianming [0000-0002-0575-2987], Zhou, Xufeng [0000-0002-3153-6954], Zhu, Yimei [0000-0002-1638-7217], Thornton, Katsuyo [0000-0002-1227-5293], Grey, Clare P [0000-0001-5572-192X], Wang, Feng [0000-0003-4068-9212], and Apollo - University of Cambridge Repository
- Subjects
Materials science ,Intercalation (chemistry) ,Nanoparticle ,Non-equilibrium thermodynamics ,Bioengineering ,02 engineering and technology ,010402 general chemistry ,01 natural sciences ,4016 Materials Engineering ,Lattice constant ,Nanotechnology ,Research Articles ,40 Engineering ,Power density ,FOS: Nanotechnology ,Multidisciplinary ,34 Chemical Sciences ,SciAdv r-articles ,021001 nanoscience & nanotechnology ,0104 chemical sciences ,Applied Sciences and Engineering ,Chemical physics ,Electrode ,3406 Physical Chemistry ,Nanometre ,0210 nano-technology ,Research Article - Abstract
Inhomogeneous Li intercalation and localized concentration reversal in nanoparticles are investigated on a nanometer scale., Nanoparticulate electrodes, such as LixFePO4, have unique advantages over their microparticulate counterparts for the applications in Li-ion batteries because of the shortened diffusion path and access to nonequilibrium routes for fast Li incorporation, thus radically boosting power density of the electrodes. However, how Li intercalation occurs locally in a single nanoparticle of such materials remains unresolved because real-time observation at such a fine scale is still lacking. We report visualization of local Li intercalation via solid-solution transformation in individual LixFePO4 nanoparticles, enabled by probing sub-angstrom changes in the lattice spacing in situ. The real-time observation reveals inhomogeneous intercalation, accompanied with an unexpected reversal of Li concentration at the nanometer scale. The origin of the reversal phenomenon is elucidated through phase-field simulations, and it is attributed to the presence of structurally different regions that have distinct chemical potential functions. The findings from this study provide a new perspective on the local intercalation dynamics in battery electrodes.
- Published
- 2017
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