NANODENDRITE was a Marie Curie Individual Fellowship funded by the EU Comission, between October 2021 and August 2023. The project was hosted at the University of Warwick (UK). The major aim of the project was to implement correlative electrochemical microscopy approaches to study lithium electrodeposition, i.e. nucleation and growth, under anode-free battery conditions.
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Project Results
We have published a series of scientific articles that showcase the key findings from our project. Our work has led to the development of scanning electrochemical cell microscopy (SECCM) as a powerful tool for studying Li-ion battery materials. Additionally, we are currently in the process of publishing results that specifically delve into the phenomena of lithium nucleation and growth.
Interfacial Chemistry Effects in the Electrochemical Performance of Silicon Electrodes under Lithium-Ion Battery Conditions
Small (2023) 2303442; https://doi.org/10.1002/smll.202303442
Understanding the solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) formation and (de)lithiation phenomena at silicon (Si) electrodes is key to improving the performance and lifetime of Si-based lithium-ion batteries. However, these processes remain somewhat elusive, and, in particular, the role of Si surface termination merits further consideration. Here, scanning electrochemical cell microscopy (SECCM) is used in a glovebox, followed by secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) at identical locations to study the local electrochemical behavior and associated SEI formation, comparing Si (100) with a native oxide layer (SiOx/Si) and etched with hydrofluoric acid (HF-Si). HF-Si shows greater spatial electrochemical heterogeneity and inferior lithiation reversibility than SiOx/Si. This is attributed to a weakly passivating SEI and irreversible lithium trapping at the Si surface. Combinatorial screening of charge/discharge cycling by SECCM with co-located SIMS reveals SEI chemistry as a function of depth. While the SEI thickness is relatively independent of the cycle number, the chemistry – particularly in the intermediate layers – depends on the number of cycles, revealing the SEI to be dynamic during cycling. This work serves as a foundation for the use of correlative SECCM/SIMS as a powerful approach to gain fundamental insights on complex battery processes at the nano- and microscales.
Link between anisotropic electrochemistry and surface transformations at single-crystal silicon electrodes: Implications for lithium-ion batteries
Natural Sciences 3 (2023) e20210607; https://doi.org/10.1002/ntls.20210607
Silicon is a promising negative electrode material for high-energy-density Li-ion batteries (LiBs) but suffers from significant degradation due to the mechanical stress induced by lithiation. Volume expansion and lithiation in Si are strongly anisotropic but associated early interfacial transformations linked to these phenomena and their implications for electrode performance remain poorly understood. Here we develop a novel correlative electrochemical multi-microscopy approach to study local interfacial degradation at the early stages for three different surface orientations of Si single crystals: Si(1 0 0), Si(1 1 0) and Si(3 1 1), after Li-ion electrochemical cycling. The experimental strategy combines scanning electrochemical cell microscopy (SECCM) measurements with subsequently recorded scanning transmission electron microscopy images of high-quality cross sections of Si electrodes, extracted at selected SECCM regions, using a novel Xe+ plasma-focused ion beam procedure. These studies reveal significant surface orientation–dependent nanoscale degradation mechanisms that strongly control electrode performance. Si(1 0 0) was immune to interfacial degradation showing the best lithiation reversibility, whereas local nanoscale delamination was observed in Si(1 1 0) leading to a lower Coulombic efficiency. Continuous electrochemical deactivation of Si(3 1 1) was associated with delamination across the whole interface, Li trapping and formation of thick (ca. 60 nm) SiO2 structures. These results demonstrate surface crystallography to be a critical factor when designing Si-based battery materials and strongly suggest that promoting Si(1 0 0) facets could potentially provide longer cycling life and performance due to a higher resistance to degradation.
Fast Li‐ion Storage and Dynamics in TiO2 Nanoparticle Clusters Probed by Smart Scanning Electrochemical Cell Microscopy
Angewandte Chemie International Edition (2022) e202214493; https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.202214493
Anatase TiO2 is a promising material for Li-ion (Li+) batteries with fast charging capability. However, Li+ (de)intercalation dynamics in TiO2 remain elusive and reported diffusivities span many orders of magnitude. Here, we develop a smart protocol for scanning electrochemical cell microscopy (SECCM) with in situ optical microscopy (OM) to enable the high-throughput charge/discharge analysis of single TiO2 nanoparticle clusters. Directly probing active nanoparticles revealed that TiO2 with a size of ≈50 nm can store over 30 % of the theoretical capacity at an extremely fast charge/discharge rate of ≈100 C. This finding of fast Li+ storage in TiO2 particles strengthens its potential for fast-charging batteries. More generally, smart SECCM-OM should find wide applications for high-throughput electrochemical screening of nanostructured materials.
Dynamics of Solid-Electrolyte Interphase Formation on Silicon Electrodes Revealed by Combinatorial Electrochemical Screening
Angewandte Chemie International Edition 61 (2022) e202207184; https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.202207184
Revealing how formation protocols influence the properties of the solid-electrolyte interphase (SEI) on Si electrodes is key to developing the next generation of Li-ion batteries. SEI understanding is, however, limited by the low-throughput nature of conventional characterisation techniques. Herein, correlative scanning electrochemical cell microscopy (SECCM) and shell-isolated nanoparticles for enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SHINERS) are used for combinatorial screening of the SEI formation under a broad experimental space (20 sets of different conditions with several repeats). This novel approach reveals the heterogeneous nature and dynamics of the SEI electrochemical properties and chemical composition on Si electrodes, which evolve in a characteristic manner as a function of cycle number. Correlative SECCM/SHINERS has the potential to screen thousands of candidate experiments on a variety of battery materials to accelerate the optimization of SEI formation methods, a key bottleneck in battery manufacturing.
