Epitaxial thin films as model battery electrodes -- The reaction front and ionic diffusion
EMSL Project ID
49200
Abstract
Energy storage is of great importance in our future. However, fundamental scientific understanding of rechargeable batteries is far behind industrial standards today. Two open questions in basic science are: (1) How do the electroactive ions move through the active material? This is particular interesting for ions of different size and charge, such as Li1+ and Mg2+. (2) How is this affected by grain boundaries and defects?In order to resolve these issues, we have defined epitaxial thin film electrodes as our simple and well-defined model system. We have chosen V2O5 as the active material, since it is a layered compound, and it is known to intercalate Li1+ as well as Mg2+. Our overall research objective is to track the ions’ diffusion and transport in the lateral and surface-normal direction via spatially resolved in-situ real-time x-ray diffraction and reflectivity. Therefore, high quality films are essential. Accordingly, we propose to use EMSL’s pulsed laser deposition (PLD) system for the epitaxial growth of (001)-oriented V2O5 thin films of SrTiO3 (001). Via variation of the deposition parameters, we will prepare films of different thickness, morphology, grain size as well as step edge and defect density. From this variation of film quality, we will gain insight into the effect of grain boundaries and defects in ion transport and diffusion.
We expect that our results will significantly improve the atomic level understanding of the movement of electroactive ions through the active materials, thus gathering a fundamental understanding of dynamic processes in energy storage, an important missing piece our knowledge today.
Project Details
Project type
Limited Scope
Start Date
2016-02-29
End Date
2016-04-30
Status
Closed
Released Data Link
Team
Principal Investigator
Team Members