Battery technology
From our mobile devices to the transportation that moves us, batteries are critical to our everyday lives. New and improved battery technology is particularly vital as we strive to improve our impact on the planet with energy-efficient electric vehicles and sustainable energy sources.
With superior energy and power density performance compared to other commercially available battery technology, lithium-ion batteries are highly efficient energy storage devices with a market that continues to grow at double-digit rates. Now, the ongoing challenge is developing batteries that are safer, more powerful, longer lasting and more cost effective.
Battery technology research
Seamless Inert Gas Sample Workflow
Sample preparation for scanning/transmission electron microscopy (S/TEM) analysis is one of the most critical and time-consuming tasks in this multi-scale, multi-modal battery research workflow. An optimum sample preparation and sample transfer between various instruments without compromising sample integrity is crucial for any microscopic material analysis. Especially if the sample is air- and/or moisture-sensitive, like Lithium, this can be an even more challenging process.
The Thermo Scientific IGST (inert gas sample transfer) workflow uses tools like the Thermo Scientific CleanConnect Sample Transfer System to allow customers to focus on their research rather than to worry about degradation of the sample.
The CleanConnect Sample Transfer System is compatible with a variety of SEMs and DualBeam systems to enable seamless, results-focused workflows, resulting in high-end material characterization in its native state. This Inert Gas Sample Transfer System is one of those innovative solutions from Thermo Fisher Scientific that paves the way for new types of experiments that have previously been considered infeasible.
Inert gas workflow for nanoscale analysis using Thermo Scientific DualBeam and TEM systems
Inert gas workflow using Thermo Scientific scanning electron microscopes
By combining analytical techniques such as micro-computed tomography (microCT), scanning and transmission electron microscopy (SEM and TEM), DualBeam (focused ion beam SEM; FIB-SEM), Raman spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and advanced 3D visualization and analysis software (Avizo), researchers can obtain the critical structural and chemical information they need to build better batteries.
Thermo Fisher Scientific offers a range of tools that excel at both microscopic and spectroscopic analysis. With our Thermo Scientific HeliScan microCT, researchers can build a high-resolution 3D model of the entire battery with one continuous scan; our scanning and transmission electron microscopes, along with our DualBeam systems, subsequently provide a highly detailed nanometer-scale view of the battery electrode and materials. In addition, a variety of chemical/elemental information for the battery materials can be collected by our XPS tools.
With this multimodal information at multiple length scales, researchers can learn fundamental properties of the battery as it changes throughout its lifetime, leading to major breakthroughs in battery design. These details could range from how different components fail as the battery is used to how lithium migrates between electrodes.
On-demand webinar: Advanced Diagnostic Tools for Characterizing Lithium Metal and Solid-State Batteries
Attend this webinar to learn how the application of cryo-EM is extended to the study of solid-state batteries and even to directly probe the liquid electrolyte–electrode interface within a coin cell. A few new perspectives about how advanced diagnostic techniques to accelerate the innovation of novel energy storage materials and architectures will also be discussed.
On-demand webinar: 3D Imaging of Lithium Ion Batteries
Advances in 3D imaging with x-rays and electron microscopes are enabling scientists and engineers to improve failure analysis and better understand the relationship between performance and structure. A detailed understanding how the 3D structure impacts the performance, and how this structure changes upon cycling, is needed to optimize current battery designs and to develop next-generation battery materials.
On-demand webinar: Advanced Characterization Methods of Electrochemical Materials and Interphases for Better Batteries
Watch the first of four monthly webinars in our Advanced Characterization Methods for Battery Innovations Webinar Series. Dr. Y. Shirley Meng, Professor, University of California San Diego (UCSD), and Dr. Zhao Liu, Market Development Manager, Thermo Fisher Scientific, discuss how advanced characterization methods, such as cryogenic electron microscope techniques (cryo-EM/cryo-FIB) and plasma FIB-SEM, facilitate the understanding of battery materials (thick cathode, Li metal, solid state electrolyte) and interphases for better batteries.
On-demand webinar: Cryo- and in situ electron microscopy diagnosis-guided design of rechargeable battery materials for better batteries
In this presentation, Dr. Chongmin Wang, Pacific Northwest National Lab (PNNL), will focus on recent progress on using ex situ, in situ, operando, and cryo-scanning transmission electron microscopy for probing into the structural and chemical evolution of electrode materials for lithium-ion batteries, representatively, such as Li and Si anode. He will highlight several recent key observations, which, even though they appear to be well documented, are essentially poorly understood, therefore limiting the advances of both cathode and anode for better batteries.
On-demand webinar: Visualizing Li-Metal Anode Battery Degradation
This presentation will explore Li-metal batteries, which, as a next-gen battery technology, provide a significant improvement in energy storage capacity compared to commercially available battery technology. We will be joined by Dr. Katherine Jungjohann, NREL, to illustrate how cryogenic electron microscopy can be used to understand the Li-metal battery degradation mechanism using a Thermo Scientific laser plasma FIB. Our goal is that this webinar provides you with knowledge that will contribute to you being able to build a better Li-metal battery.
On-demand webinar: Understanding Surface Reactions of the Solid Electrolyte Interface via Advanced Characterization Techniques
This presentation by Dr. Charl Jafta of Oak Ridge National Laboratory will show the characterization of solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) layers that leads to the development of processes to create artificial SEI layers. A facile, non-invasive, electrochemical protocol is presented to improve the interfacial impedance and contact. Because extremely fast charging causes lithium plating on graphite electrodes, Li4Ti5O12 (LTO) and TiNb2O7 (TNO) are explored as alternatives. In situ thermal XPS measurements will be shown on solid polymer electrolytes, opening the question if the degradation is because of the temperature or the X-ray radiation. XPS as a standalone and complementary tool to probe battery surfaces will also be discussed with other operando techniques.
3D battery electrode microstructure, reconstructed using Avizo Software.
Multi-scale characterization of batteries.
Testimonial from Professor Ying Shirley Meng, PhD, University of California San Diego.
Documents
On-demand webinar: Advanced Diagnostic Tools for Characterizing Lithium Metal and Solid-State Batteries
Attend this webinar to learn how the application of cryo-EM is extended to the study of solid-state batteries and even to directly probe the liquid electrolyte–electrode interface within a coin cell. A few new perspectives about how advanced diagnostic techniques to accelerate the innovation of novel energy storage materials and architectures will also be discussed.
On-demand webinar: 3D Imaging of Lithium Ion Batteries
Advances in 3D imaging with x-rays and electron microscopes are enabling scientists and engineers to improve failure analysis and better understand the relationship between performance and structure. A detailed understanding how the 3D structure impacts the performance, and how this structure changes upon cycling, is needed to optimize current battery designs and to develop next-generation battery materials.
On-demand webinar: Advanced Characterization Methods of Electrochemical Materials and Interphases for Better Batteries
Watch the first of four monthly webinars in our Advanced Characterization Methods for Battery Innovations Webinar Series. Dr. Y. Shirley Meng, Professor, University of California San Diego (UCSD), and Dr. Zhao Liu, Market Development Manager, Thermo Fisher Scientific, discuss how advanced characterization methods, such as cryogenic electron microscope techniques (cryo-EM/cryo-FIB) and plasma FIB-SEM, facilitate the understanding of battery materials (thick cathode, Li metal, solid state electrolyte) and interphases for better batteries.
On-demand webinar: Cryo- and in situ electron microscopy diagnosis-guided design of rechargeable battery materials for better batteries
In this presentation, Dr. Chongmin Wang, Pacific Northwest National Lab (PNNL), will focus on recent progress on using ex situ, in situ, operando, and cryo-scanning transmission electron microscopy for probing into the structural and chemical evolution of electrode materials for lithium-ion batteries, representatively, such as Li and Si anode. He will highlight several recent key observations, which, even though they appear to be well documented, are essentially poorly understood, therefore limiting the advances of both cathode and anode for better batteries.
On-demand webinar: Visualizing Li-Metal Anode Battery Degradation
This presentation will explore Li-metal batteries, which, as a next-gen battery technology, provide a significant improvement in energy storage capacity compared to commercially available battery technology. We will be joined by Dr. Katherine Jungjohann, NREL, to illustrate how cryogenic electron microscopy can be used to understand the Li-metal battery degradation mechanism using a Thermo Scientific laser plasma FIB. Our goal is that this webinar provides you with knowledge that will contribute to you being able to build a better Li-metal battery.
On-demand webinar: Understanding Surface Reactions of the Solid Electrolyte Interface via Advanced Characterization Techniques
This presentation by Dr. Charl Jafta of Oak Ridge National Laboratory will show the characterization of solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) layers that leads to the development of processes to create artificial SEI layers. A facile, non-invasive, electrochemical protocol is presented to improve the interfacial impedance and contact. Because extremely fast charging causes lithium plating on graphite electrodes, Li4Ti5O12 (LTO) and TiNb2O7 (TNO) are explored as alternatives. In situ thermal XPS measurements will be shown on solid polymer electrolytes, opening the question if the degradation is because of the temperature or the X-ray radiation. XPS as a standalone and complementary tool to probe battery surfaces will also be discussed with other operando techniques.
3D battery electrode microstructure, reconstructed using Avizo Software.
Multi-scale characterization of batteries.
Testimonial from Professor Ying Shirley Meng, PhD, University of California San Diego.
Documents
Quality control and failure analysis
Quality control and assurance are essential in modern industry. We offer a range of EM and spectroscopy tools for multi-scale and multi-modal analysis of defects, allowing you to make reliable and informed decisions for process control and improvement.
Fundamental Materials Research
Novel materials are investigated at increasingly smaller scales for maximum control of their physical and chemical properties. Electron microscopy provides researchers with key insight into a wide variety of material characteristics at the micro- to nano-scale.
Lithium-ion battery manufacturing
Increasing energy demands increasingly fuel energy-storage innovations. Twin-screw extrusion can optimize manufacturing, and rheological characterization of slurries can ensure efficient screen-printing, leading to the development of new formulations.
EDS Elemental Analysis
Thermo Scientific Phenom Elemental Mapping Software provides fast and reliable information on the distribution of chemical elements within a sample.
Cross-sectioning
Cross sectioning provides extra insight by revealing sub-surface information. DualBeam instruments feature superior focused ion beam columns for high-quality cross sectioning. With automation, unattended high-throughput processing of samples is possible.
3D Materials Characterization
Development of materials often requires multi-scale 3D characterization. DualBeam instruments enable serial sectioning of large volumes and subsequent SEM imaging at nanometer scale, which can be processed into high-quality 3D reconstructions of the sample.
Multi-scale analysis
Novel materials must be analyzed at ever higher resolution while retaining the larger context of the sample. Multi-scale analysis allows for the correlation of various imaging tools and modalities such as X-ray microCT, DualBeam, Laser PFIB, SEM and TEM.
(S)TEM Sample Preparation
DualBeam microscopes enable the preparation of high-quality, ultra-thin samples for (S)TEM analysis. Thanks to advanced automation, users with any experience level can obtain expert-level results for a wide range of materials.
3D EDS Tomography
Modern materials research is increasingly reliant on nanoscale analysis in three dimensions. 3D characterization, including compositional data for full chemical and structural context, is possible with 3D EM and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy.
Particle analysis
Particle analysis plays a vital role in nanomaterials research and quality control. The nanometer-scale resolution and superior imaging of electron microscopy can be combined with specialized software for rapid characterization of powders and particles.
X-Ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy
X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) enables surface analysis, providing elemental composition as well as the chemical and electronic state of the top 10 nm of a material. With depth profiling, XPS analysis extends to compositional insight of layers.
EDS Analysis with ChemiSEM Technology
Energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy for materials characterization.
EDS Elemental Analysis
Thermo Scientific Phenom Elemental Mapping Software provides fast and reliable information on the distribution of chemical elements within a sample.
Cross-sectioning
Cross sectioning provides extra insight by revealing sub-surface information. DualBeam instruments feature superior focused ion beam columns for high-quality cross sectioning. With automation, unattended high-throughput processing of samples is possible.
3D Materials Characterization
Development of materials often requires multi-scale 3D characterization. DualBeam instruments enable serial sectioning of large volumes and subsequent SEM imaging at nanometer scale, which can be processed into high-quality 3D reconstructions of the sample.
Multi-scale analysis
Novel materials must be analyzed at ever higher resolution while retaining the larger context of the sample. Multi-scale analysis allows for the correlation of various imaging tools and modalities such as X-ray microCT, DualBeam, Laser PFIB, SEM and TEM.
(S)TEM Sample Preparation
DualBeam microscopes enable the preparation of high-quality, ultra-thin samples for (S)TEM analysis. Thanks to advanced automation, users with any experience level can obtain expert-level results for a wide range of materials.
3D EDS Tomography
Modern materials research is increasingly reliant on nanoscale analysis in three dimensions. 3D characterization, including compositional data for full chemical and structural context, is possible with 3D EM and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy.
Particle analysis
Particle analysis plays a vital role in nanomaterials research and quality control. The nanometer-scale resolution and superior imaging of electron microscopy can be combined with specialized software for rapid characterization of powders and particles.
X-Ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy
X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) enables surface analysis, providing elemental composition as well as the chemical and electronic state of the top 10 nm of a material. With depth profiling, XPS analysis extends to compositional insight of layers.
EDS Analysis with ChemiSEM Technology
Energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy for materials characterization.
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