Science Daily January 12, 2018
When a lithium-ion battery supplies electricity, lithium ions flow into empty sites in the atomic lattice. It was assumed that the concentration of lithium would continuously increase in the lattice. By imaging reactions inside the electrodes in real time, an international team of researchers (USA – Brookhaven National Laboratory, University of Michigan, MIT, UC Berkeley, UK, China) has shown that, when the battery’s electrodes are made from nano-sized particles, the lithium concentration within local regions of nanoparticles go up, and then down. This discovery is a major step toward improving the battery life of consumer electronics… read more. Open Access TECHNICAL ARTICLEÂ
2D maps depict the concentration of lithium inside a single nanoparticle. Over time, the concentration increases, decreases, and then increases again. Credit: Image courtesy of DOE/Brookhaven National Laboratory