Fundamental Li-ion Na-ion battery research

Currently Li-ion chemistries dominate the rechargeable battery market because of their large energy density and storage efficiency. The chemical similarity of Na in combination with its large natural abundance on earth will lead to the introduction of Na-ion battery chemistries. For the further improvement and development it is important to have fundamental understanding of the underlying reactions, including the structural changes upon Li-ion/Na-ion insertion and extraction, which often determine the cycle life, and the Li-ion/Na-ion kinetics that contribute to the internal resistance.

Within the Storage of Electrochemical Energy (SEE) group we investigate the fundamental properties of a variety of Li-ion and Na-ion storage materials, including their phase transition mechanism and Li-ion transport properties, both key properties that determine macroscopic battery performance. The techniques used to investigate these properties include operando X-ray and Neutron Diffraction, operando micro-beam diffraction, Solid State NMR, operando Neutron Depth Profiling, Density Functional Theory and Phase Field Modeling.