High-quality in operando x-ray diffraction analysis of pouch bag lithium-ion batteries

The data and method described in this application note resulted from a common work of Dr. Stefan Seidlmayer (TU München) and Armin Kriele (Helmholtz Zentrum Geesthacht) from the Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Zentrum, MLZ in Garching (Germany). The MLZ is a neutron research facility open for user experiments in science and industrial application.

Introduction

Lithium-ion batteries have become increasingly important in key technologies of our day-to-day lives. Especially the long-term performance of batteries is crucial for their applications in new markets such as energy storage in electric vehicles or even large-scale electric storage devices combined with photovoltaic energy sources.

For these large-scale applications a key requirement is very good long-term and cycling performance. Improvement of this performance requires studying ongoing aging processes inside batteries continuously and without the need to destroy and disassemble them prior to the analysis (in operando analysis). This is especially important as many cell components deteriorate due to the disassembly process or when exposed to air or moisture.