Spinel materials for Li-ion batteries: new insights obtained by operando neutron and synchrotron X-ray diffraction (original) (raw)

In the last few decades Li-ion batteries changed the way we store energy, becoming a key element of our everyday life. Their continuous improvement is tightly bound to the understanding of lithium (de)intercalation phenomena in electrode materials. Here we address the use ofoperandodiffraction techniques to understand these mechanisms. We focus on powerful probes such as neutrons and synchrotron X-ray radiation, which have become increasingly familiar to the electrochemical community. After discussing the general benefits (and drawbacks) of these characterization techniques and the work of customization required to adapt standard electrochemical cells to anoperandodiffraction experiment, we highlight several very recent results. We concentrate on important electrode materials such as the spinels Li1 + xMn2 − xO4(0 ≤x≤ 0.10) and LiNi0.4Mn1.6O4. Thorough investigations led byoperandoneutron powder diffraction demonstrated that neutrons are highly sensitive to structural parameters tha...