Materials degradation-the main limiting factor for widespread application of alloy anodes in battery systems-was assumed to be worse in sodium alloys than in lithium analogues due to the larger sodium-ion radius. Efforts to relieve this problem are reliant on the understanding of electrochemical and structural degradation. Here we track three-dimensional structural and chemical evolution of tin...

Microscale materials generally have a higher tap density than that of random nanoparticles. Therefore, microparticles have been attracting much attention for application as high volumetric density electrodes for lithium ion batteries. However, microparticles have much longer electrolyte diffusion and Li-ion migration length and less accessibility to the electrolyte than that of nanoparticles. T...

LiCoO 2 is an important lithium storage compound that adopts a distorted rock-salt structure of the α -NaFeO 2 type. After the discovery of reversible lithium (de)intercalation in this layered host compound by Mizushima et al., [ 1 ] this material became central to the introduction and subsequent development of lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) of high energy and power density. The advantages of LiC...

Possible changes in the oxidation state of the oxygen ion in the lithium iron phosphate Li3Fe2(PO4)3 at high voltages in lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries are studied using experimental and computational analysis. Results obtained from synchrotron-based hard X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and density functional theory (DFT) show that the oxidation state of O(2-) ions is altered to higher oxidati...

Safe and efficient operation of lithium ion batteries requires precisely directed flow of lithium ions and electrons to control the first directional volume changes in anode and cathode materials. Understanding and controlling the lithium ion transport in battery electrodes becomes crucial to the design of high performance and durable batteries. Recent work revealed that the chemical potential ...

After an introduction to lithium insertion compounds and the principles of Li-ion cells, we present a comparative study of the physical and electrochemical properties of positive electrodes used in lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). Electrode materials include three different classes of lattices according to the dimensionality of the Li ion motion in them: olivine, layered transition-metal oxides an...

Three-dimensional self-supported cathode nanoarchitectures are the key to develop high-performance thin film lithium-ion microbatteries and flexible lithium-ion batteries. In this work, we have developed a facile “hydrothermal lithiation” strategy to prepare vertically aligned porous LiMn2O4 nanowall arrays, comprising highly crystallized spinel nanoparticles, on various conductive substrates w...

Prognostics and remaining useful life (RUL) estimation for lithium-ion batteries play an important role in intelligent battery management systems (BMS). The capacity is often used as the fade indicator for estimating the remaining cycle life of a lithium-ion battery. For spacecraft requiring high reliability and long lifetime, in-orbit RUL estimation and reliability verification on ground shoul...

Current lithium batteries operate on inorganic insertion compounds to power a diverse range of applications, but recently there is a surging demand to develop environmentally friendly green electrode materials. To develop sustainable and eco-friendly lithium ion batteries, we report reversible lithium ion storage properties of a naturally occurring and abundant organic compound purpurin, which ...