Operando transmission electron microscopy could revolutionize battery technology
Operando transmission electron microscopy could revolutionize battery technology lead image
Creating more efficient rechargeable batteries has become an integral focus of many researchers as renewable energy usage rises globally. Increasingly, operando transmission electron microscopy, or TEM, is used to understand battery characteristics.
Basak et al. described how this use of TEM could guide the optimization of rechargeable batteries. TEM diagnostics enable direct visualization of electrode and electrolyte interfaces at high resolution, and the technique has catalyzed developments in batteries, including new materials and architecture.
“Operando TEM has the potential to revolutionize battery technology by looking at the chemical, morphological, and structural changes up to the atomic scale,” said author Shibabrata Basak. “Any advancement of this technique will be similarly beneficial for other branches of material science and engineering, as well as biological applications.”
Basak et al. examined recent advances in TEM in battery characterization, focusing on how TEM can be paired with other techniques such as side-by-side correlation microscopy and imaging processing via machine learning. The team also covered prospective uses of TEM and advancements that could allow cutting-edge measurements, including the fabrication of suitable cell structures, close to real-world batteries, and optimized cycling conditions.
“We hope that our review will be topical, timely, and of significant interest to battery and electron microscopy communities and researchers in many disciplines,” Basak said. “The work can inform battery industries with technical insights into batteries as well as policy makers and beyond.”
Source: “Characterizing battery materials and electrodes via in situ/operando transmission electron microscopy,” by Shibabrata Basak, Krzysztof Dzieciol, Yasin Emre Durmus, Hermann Tempel, Hans Kungl, Chandramohan George, Joachim Mayer, and Rüdiger-A. Eichel, Chemical Physics Reviews (2022). The article can be accessed at https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0075430 .
