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The University of Southampton
Chemistry

MRI/NMR detection of critical electrochemical device parameters  Seminar

Time:
15:00 - 16:00
Date:
1 May 2018
Venue:
Building 25, Lecture Room 1009, University of Southampton

For more information regarding this seminar, please email Prof Malcolm Levitt at Malcolm.Levitt@soton.ac.uk .

Event details

Seminar with Prof Alexej Jerschow, New York University.

Batteries are drivers of alternative energy solutions and the electric vehicle market, and are central to portable electronic devices. In this talk I will describe our work on the development of techniques for assessment of Li-ion batteries, supercapacitors, and battery materials via magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The goal of these studies is to analyze the devices and energy storage mechanisms in situ during charging or discharging conditions by imaging changes in both the electrolyte and the electrodes in a noninvasive fashion. In situ NMR/MRI have proven to be powerful tools to probe the structure of Li-ion batteries. These techniques have the potential to monitor dynamics and visually monitor changes in functioning electrochemical systems in real time. The operation of some energy storage devices where only the electrolyte is involved in the electrochemical process (such as supercapacitors) can only be studied in situ, as the electrolyte concentration gradients will relax as a potential is removed from the cell. I will discuss how the rf field is perturbed by the presence of conducting materials in the probe, how susceptibility shifts can be used for assessing the morphology of microstructure buildup on electrodes, how the location and concentration of both cations and anions can be followed separately. I will also discuss the opportunities for indirectly monitoring SEI layer properties and Li-dendrite growth mechanisms. Recent results on MRI of commercial-type cells, and the determination of state of charge and health will also be presented. This last development is of importance for analyzing, for example, cell-phone cells nondestructively, and may hence be of value for assessing the state of these devices under various conditions.

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