Besides understanding the performance characteristics throughout a battery’s life, it is equally important to understand when, why, and how batteries fail. Microscopy can serve as a beneficial tool for studying battery microstructures to understand what aspects of the microstructure lead to certain failure characteristics.

With X-ray microscopy (XRM), researchers are able to perform a 4D imaging experiment over a battery’s lifetime. A fresh battery was studied intact, then subjected to aging until failure and imaged again. The results of electrochemically aged batteries were compared to those of temporally aged batteries, which showed a systematic microstructural change uniquely in response to the electrochemical aging routine.

Download the application note to learn more about battery failure analysis.