Microstructural Analysis of Li-Ion Battery Graphite Anodes

Abstract

Lithium-ion batteries are canonically designed to be cathode-limited. However, the deleterious effects are anode-centric 1-3 . The conventional wisdom about porous intercalation electrodes treats them as homogeneous reaction zones with spherical particles undergoing intercalation. Graphite anodes exhibit a considerable morphological departure from this interpretation. In the present work, multiple graphite electrode tomograms are analyzed for their microstructural variation. The associated geometrical stochasticity is quantified in terms of short- and long-range interactions to provide a comprehensive picture of its electrochemical response. (1) Zheng, H.; Qu, Q.; Zhu, G.; Liu, G.; Battaglia, V. S.;Zheng, H. Quantitative Characterization of the Surface Evolution for Lini0. 5co0. 2mn0. 3o2/Graphite Cell During Long-Term Cycling. ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 2017 , 9 , 12445-12452. (2) Mistry, A. N.; Smith, K.;Mukherjee, P. P. Electrochemistry Coupled Mesoscale Complexations in Electrodes Lead to Thermo-Electrochemical Extremes. ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 2018 , 10 , 28644-28655. (3) Kotak, N.; Barai, P.; Verma, A.; Mistry, A.;Mukherjee, P. P. Electrochemistry-Mechanics Coupling in Intercalation Electrodes. J. Electrochem. Soc. 2018 , 165 , A1064-A1083.