Unconventional approach yields high-performance material for next-generation battery
Scientific Achievement
A novel rock-salt electrode material has been produced by the unconventional approach of crystallization of amorphous nano-channeled Nb2O5 during initial cell cycling. The rock-salt electrode reversibly cycles three Li ions per Nb2O5, yielding very high capacity with superb capacity stability over 400 cycles. The unique crystalline structure also permits fast charging.
Significance and Impact
The electrode has application for electric vehicles while the new approach is applicable to creating other new metal oxide electrodes.
Research Details
Transmission electron microscopy at CNM verified the structural transformation from amorphous to crystalline phase. Synchrotron X-ray diffraction at APS confirmed the structural change.
Work was performed, in part, at the Center for Nanoscale Materials (CNM) and Advanced Photon Source (APS).
About Argonne’s Center for Nanoscale Materials
The Center for Nanoscale Materials is one of the five DOE Nanoscale Science Research Centers, premier national user facilities for interdisciplinary research at the nanoscale supported by the DOE Office of Science. Together the NSRCs comprise a suite of complementary facilities that provide researchers with state-of-the-art capabilities to fabricate, process, characterize and model nanoscale materials, and constitute the largest infrastructure investment of the National Nanotechnology Initiative. The NSRCs are located at DOE’s Argonne, Brookhaven, Lawrence Berkeley, Oak Ridge, Sandia and Los Alamos National Laboratories. For more information about the DOE NSRCs, please visit https://science.osti.gov/User-Facilities/User-Facilities-at-a-Glance.
Argonne National Laboratory seeks solutions to pressing national problems in science and technology by conducting leading-edge basic and applied research in virtually every scientific discipline. Argonne is managed by UChicago Argonne, LLC for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science.
The U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, visit https://energy.gov/science.