From structure to performance

Microscopy plays a key role in studying powders and particles used to produce battery electrodes. By observing the structure, morphology, and chemistry of these raw materials, scientists can better understand their electrochemical behavior at a fundamental level, and gain insight to how they will perform once integrated into a functioning cell.

Other materials within battery cells also play critical roles, such as providing structural support and enabling electronic and ionic conduction (current collectors, binders, separators, electrolytes). Microscopic analysis can reveal structural impacts of these materials on transport processes, as well as phenomena occurring at interfaces.

Battery materials often exhibit subtle structural and compositional differences, making it hard for a single imaging approach to distinguish them. ZEISS electron microscopy workflows provide complementary imaging modes for analyzing interfaces, particle distributions, coatings, porosity, and material contrast within complex battery structures.

Imaging the same lithium-ion battery cross-section with different detector signals reveals striking variations in material contrast and microstructural detail. By comparing these imaging modes, researchers gain useful insights into interfaces, coatings, particle distributions, and other structural features that shape battery performance and degradation.

Battery electrodes consist of complex three-dimensional networks of active material, binder, and electrolyte (porosity). By using 3D microscopy techniques, these micro- and nano-scale networks can be imaged directly to enable measurement of critical morphological characteristics or even produce discrete volumetric modeling domains for input to numerical simulations of battery electrochemistry.