Clean Energy Forum News and Events

Advanced imaging and battery characterization workshop in the USA empowers clean energy enthusiasts

In May 2024, we hosted an advanced imaging and battery characterization workshop at the Thermo Fisher Scientific North American NanoPort in Hillsboro, Oregon, USA. This workshop brought together a dedicated group of microscopy enthusiasts and battery materials scientists to discuss and share insights on imaging beam-sensitive materials, battery structural analysis, metal impurity detection, and the advantages of electron and ion microscopy. 

We also demonstrated how the Thermo Scientific Inert Gas Sample Transfer (IGST) Workflow preserves the integrity of air- and moisture-sensitive materials, allowing researchers to concentrate on important clean energy questions without worrying about sample degradation.

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Min-Huei Chiou, Helmholtz-Institute Münster, Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH

Compatibility of Polymer Segments Impacts Electrolyte Membrane Homogeneity and Electrochemical Performance

A reversible exploitation of high-energy density lithium metal batteries requires homogeneous lithium deposition upon cell cycling, where copolymer electrolytes based on their good balance of mechanical strength and achievable ionic conductivity are viable candidates for mitigating high-surface-area lithium growth. Thus, in this work1, in-depth analysis of (polarity-derived) compatibility among polymer segments that affect the distribution of membrane properties and lithium deposition is presented, introducing PTMC- and PEO-based copolymer systems2. The corresponding morphology of lithium deposits appeared severely localized in cases where the electrostatic fields and number of lithium-ion coordination sites at the polymer segment species were highly different, exhibiting sudden cycling failure and poor cell longevity. In contrast, copolymer electrolytes comprised of more compatible segment species (as reflected by similar molecular dipole moments) afforded superior cell performance (e.g., cycling at rates of 1C even with higher mass-loaded cathodes (6.3 mg cm−2)). Combined with computational efforts, the present work contributes to more comprehensive understanding of cell failure mechanisms and the design of tailored electrolytes that could avoid lithium protrusion of the membranes, in this way yielding feasible concepts for a development of high-performance copolymer electrolytes.

1. M.-C. Chiou et al., ACS Applied Energy Materials 2023, 6, 4422

2. M.-C. Chiou et al., Journal of Power Sources 2022, 538, 231528