Screening of Coatings for an All-Solid-State Battery using In Situ Transmission Electron Microscopy
The all-solid-state batteries (ASSBs) that use solid electrolytes instead of liquid electrolytes, which reduce the risk of flammability, the ion transportation through the solid-solid electrolyte-electrode interface poses a challenge due to contact and chemical/electrochemical stability issues.
Applying a suitable coating around the electrode and/or electrolyte particles offers a convenient solution, leading to better performance. For this, researchers are screening potential electronic/ionic conductive and nonconductive coatings to find the best coatings with suitable thickness for long-term chemical, electrochemical, and mechanical stability. Operando transmission electron microscopy (TEM) couples high spatial resolution with a high temporal resolution to allow visualization of dynamic processes and thus is an ideal tool to evaluate electrode/electrolyte coatings via studying (de)lithiation at a single particle level in real-time. However, the accumulated electron dose during a typical high-resolution in situ work may affect the electrochemical pathways, the evaluation of which can be time-consuming. In the recent paper ‘Screening of Coatings for an All-Solid-State Battery using In Situ Transmission Electron Microscopy’ published in JoVE (DOI:10.3791/64316), we highlighted an alternative procedure. We applied the potential coatings on Si nanoparticles which are subjected to (de)lithiation during operando TEM experiments. The high volume changes of Si nanoparticles during (de)lithiation allow monitoring of the coating behavior at a relatively low magnification. Thus, the whole process is very electron-dose efficient and offers quick screening of potential coatings.
Shibabrata Basak, Junbeom Park, Janghyun Jo, Osmane Camara, Amir H. Tavabi, Hermann Tempel, Hans Kungl, Chandramohan George, Rafal E. Dunin-Borkowski, Joachim Mayer, Rüdiger-A. Eichel