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Development and Characterization of Lithium Battery Materials

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A special issue of Batteries (ISSN 2313-0105). This special issue belongs to the section "Battery Materials and Interfaces: Anode, Cathode, Separators and Electrolytes or Others".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 November 2022) | Viewed by 24281

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Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Karim Zaghib

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Guest Editor

Center of Excellence in Transportation Electrification and Energy Storage, Hydro-Québec, 1806 boulevard Lionel-Boulet, Varennes, QC J3X 1S1, Canada
Interests: lithium ion batteries/solid state batteries
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Dr. Yuesheng Wang

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Guest Editor

Center of Excellence in Transportation Electrification and Energy Storage, Hydro-Québec, 1806 boulevard Lionel-Boulet, Varennes, QC J3X 1S1, Canada
Interests: Li/Na ion batteries/solid state batteries
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) are widely used in portable electronic devices and electric vehicles due to their high energy density, which is the highest among all commercialized secondary batteries. Despite their great commercial success, future lithium-ion batteries are anticipated with enhanced energy density, cycle life, and safety. Therefore, this Special Issue is focused on novel electrode materials’ development and characterization. Potential topics include but are not limited to the following:

Characterization of the side reaction about layered oxides like NMC622 and NCM811, in lithium ion batteries;
Mechanism of cycle fading about layered oxides in lithium ion batteries;
Advanced manufacturing methods to decrease the cost of electrode materials;
Novel Co-free layered oxides;
Characterization of interface between cathode and solid-state electrolytes;
DFT simulation about electrode materials and electrolytes;
Novel solid state electrolytes;
New characterization tools to monitor electrodes or batteries.

Prof. Dr. Karim Zaghib
Dr. Yuesheng Wang
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Batteries is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

Lithium-ion batteries
Solid-state batteries
Novel electrode materials
Layered oxides
Characterization

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

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18 pages, 7579 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Quantitative Lithiation Depth Profiling in Silicon Containing Anodes Investigated by Ion Beam Analysis

by Sören Möller, Hyunsang Joo, Marcin Rasinski, Markus Mann, Egbert Figgemeier and Martin Finsterbusch

Batteries 2022, 8(2), 14; https://doi.org/10.3390/batteries8020014 - 08 Feb 2022

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 3930

Abstract

The localisation and quantitative analysis of lithium (Li) in battery materials, components, and full cells are scientifically highly relevant, yet challenging tasks. The methodical developments of MeV ion beam analysis (IBA) presented here open up new possibilities for simultaneous elemental quantification and localisation of light and heavy elements in Li and other batteries. It describes the technical prerequisites and limitations of using IBA to analyse and solve current challenges with the example of Li-ion and solid-state battery-related research and development. Here, nuclear reaction analysis and Rutherford backscattering spectrometry can provide spatial resolutions down to 70 nm and 1% accuracy. To demonstrate the new insights to be gained by IBA, SiO_x-containing graphite anodes are lithiated to six states-of-charge (SoC) between 0–50%. The quantitative Li depth profiling of the anodes shows a linear increase of the Li concentration with SoC and a match of injected and detected Li-ions. This unambiguously proofs the electrochemical activity of Si. Already at 50% SoC, we derive C/Li = 5.4 (< LiC₆) when neglecting Si, proving a relevant uptake of Li by the 8 atom % Si (C/Si ≈ 9) in the anode with Li/Si ≤ 1.8 in this case. Extrapolations to full lithiation show a maximum of Li/Si = 1.04 ± 0.05. The analysis reveals all element concentrations are constant over the anode thickness of 44 µm, except for a ~6-µm-thick separator-side surface layer. Here, the Li and Si concentrations are a factor 1.23 higher compared to the bulk for all SoC, indicating preferential Li binding to SiO_x. These insights are so far not accessible with conventional analysis methods and are a first important step towards in-depth knowledge of quantitative Li distributions on the component level and a further application of IBA in the battery community. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Development and Characterization of Lithium Battery Materials)

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12 pages, 2168 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Raman Diagnostics of Cathode Materials for Li-Ion Batteries Using Multi-Wavelength Excitation

by Marcel Heber, Kathrin Hofmann and Christian Hess

Batteries 2022, 8(2), 10; https://doi.org/10.3390/batteries8020010 - 29 Jan 2022

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 5974

Abstract

Lithium-ion batteries have been commonly employed as power sources in portable devices and are of great interest for large-scale energy storage. To further enhance the fundamental understanding of the electrode structure, we report on the use of multi-wavelength Raman spectroscopy for the detailed characterization of layered cathode materials for Li-ion batteries (LiCoO_2, LiNi_xCo_1−xO₂, LiNi_1/3Mn_1/3Co_1/3O₂). Varying the laser excitation from the UV to the visible (257, 385, 515, 633 nm) reveals wavelength-dependent changes in the vibrational profile and overtone/combination bands, originating from resonance effects in LiCoO₂. In mixed oxides, the influence of resonance effects on the vibrational profile is preserved but mitigated by the presence of Ni and/or Mn, highlighting the influence of resonance Raman spectroscopy on electronic structure changes. The use of UV laser excitation (257, 385 nm) is shown to lead to a higher scattering efficiency towards Ni in LiNi_1/3Mn_1/3Co_1/3O₂ compared to visible wavelengths, while deep UV excitation at 257 nm allows for the sensitive detection of surface species and/or precursor species reminiscent of the synthesis. Our results demonstrate the potential of multi-wavelength Raman spectroscopy for the detailed characterization of cathode materials for lithium-ion batteries, including phase/impurity identification and quantification, as well as electronic structure analysis. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Development and Characterization of Lithium Battery Materials)

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11 pages, 8890 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Evaluation of Computational Chemistry Methods for Predicting Redox Potentials of Quinone-Based Cathodes for Li-Ion Batteries

by Xuan Zhou, Abhishek Khetan and Süleyman Er

Batteries 2021, 7(4), 71; https://doi.org/10.3390/batteries7040071 - 28 Oct 2021

Cited by 9 | Viewed by 4521

Abstract

High-throughput computational screening (HTCS) is an effective tool to accelerate the discovery of active materials for Li-ion batteries. For the evaluation of organic cathode materials, the effectiveness of HTCS depends on the accuracy of the employed chemical descriptors and their computing cost. This work was focused on evaluating the performance of computational chemistry methods, including semi-empirical quantum mechanics (SEQM), density-functional tight-binding (DFTB), and density functional theory (DFT), for the prediction of the redox potentials of quinone-based cathode materials for Li-ion batteries. In addition, we evaluated the accuracy of three energy-related descriptors: (1) the redox reaction energy, (2) the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) energy of reactant molecules, and (3) the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) energy of lithiated product molecules. Among them, the LUMO energy of the reactant compounds, regardless of the level of theory used for its calculation, showed the best performance as a descriptor for the prediction of experimental redox potentials. This finding contrasts with our earlier results on the calculation of quinone redox potentials in aqueous media for redox flow batteries, for which the redox reaction energy was the best descriptor. Furthermore, the combination of geometry optimization using low-level methods (e.g., SEQM or DFTB) followed by energy calculation with DFT yielded accuracy as good as the full optimization of geometry using the DFT calculations. Thus, the proposed calculation scheme is useful for both the optimum use of computational resources and the systematic generation of robust calculation data on quinone-based cathode compounds for the training of data-driven material discovery models. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Development and Characterization of Lithium Battery Materials)

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Review

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47 pages, 1407 KiB

Open AccessReview

The Toxicity of Secondary Lithium-Sulfur Batteries Components

by Krzysztof Siczek

Batteries 2020, 6(3), 45; https://doi.org/10.3390/batteries6030045 - 06 Sep 2020

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 8674

Abstract

Currently, apart from the widely known lithium-ion batteries, there are competitive solutions in the form of, for example, Li-S batteries. While the results of studies on the toxicity of Li-ion battery components are published, such studies on the components of Li-S cells are just beginning. The purpose of the current review was to identify materials used in the production of Li-S batteries and their toxicity, especially for humans. The review showed many kinds of materials with different levels of toxicity utilized for manufacturing of these cells. Some materials are of low toxicity, while some others are of the high one. A lot of materials have assigned different hazard statements. For some of the materials, no hazard statements were assigned, although such materials are toxic. No data related to the toxicity of some materials were found in the literature. This points out the need to further studies on their toxicity and legal actions to assign appropriate hazard statements. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Development and Characterization of Lithium Battery Materials)

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