Eike Ahrens

High Area Capacity Lithium-Sulfur Full-cell Battery with Prelitiathed Silicon Nanowire-Carbon Anodes for Long Cycling Stability

We show full Li/S cells with the use of balanced and high capacity electrodes to address high power electro-mobile applications. The anode is made of an assembly comprising of silicon nanowires as active material densely and conformally grown on a 3D carbon mesh as a light-weight current collector, offering extremely high areal capacity for reversible Li storage of up to 9 mAh/cm2. The dense growth is guaranteed by a versatile Au precursor developed for homogenous Au layer deposition on 3D substrates. In contrast to metallic Li, the presented system exhibits superior characteristics as an anode in Li/S batteries such as safe operation, long cycle life and easy handling. These anodes are combined with high area density S/C composite cathodes into a Li/S full-cell with an ether- and lithium triflate-based electrolyte for high ionic conductivity. The result is a highly cyclable full-cell with an areal capacity of 2.3 mAh/cm2, a cyclability surpassing 450 cycles and capacity retention of 80% after 150 cycles (capacity loss <0.4% per cycle). A detailed physical and electrochemical investigation of the SiNW Li/S full-cell including in-operando synchrotron X-ray diffraction measurements reveals that the lower degradation is due to a lower self-reduction of polysulfides after continuous charging/discharging.

A novel high-throughput setup for in situ powder diffraction on coin cell batteries

A new setup for in situ experiments with up to eight electrochemical cells, especially battery coin cells, and the corresponding custom-made in situ cells are presented. The setup is primarily optimized for synchrotron powder diffraction measurements. As a newly constructed experimental setup, the in situ coin cell holder was tested for positional errors of the cells and the reliability of the diffraction as well as electrochemical measurements. The overall performance characteristics of the sample holder are illustrated by measurements on LiMn2O4 and LiNi0.35Fe0.3Mn1.35O4 spinel-based positive electrode materials.

Hall-plot of the phase diagram for Ba(Fe 1− x Co x ) 2 As 2

The Hall effect is a powerful tool for investigating carrier type and density. For single-band materials, the Hall coefficient is traditionally expressed simply by , where e is the charge of the carrier, and n is the concentration. However, it is well known that in the critical region near a quantum phase transition, as it was demonstrated for cuprates and heavy fermions, the Hall coefficient exhibits strong temperature and doping dependencies, which can not be described by such a simple expression, and the interpretation of the Hall coefficient for Fe-based superconductors is also problematic. Here, we investigate thin films of Ba(Fe1−xCox)2As2 with compressive and tensile in-plane strain in a wide range of Co doping. Such in-plane strain changes the band structure of the compounds, resulting in various shifts of the whole phase diagram as a function of Co doping. We show that the resultant phase diagrams for different strain states can be mapped onto a single phase diagram with the Hall number. This universal plot is attributed to the critical fluctuations in multiband systems near the antiferromagnetic transition, which may suggest a direct link between magnetic and superconducting properties in the BaFe2As2 system.

Giant thermal expansion and α-precipitation pathways in Ti-alloys

Ti-alloys represent the principal structural materials in both aerospace development and metallic biomaterials. Key to optimizing their mechanical and functional behaviour is in-depth know-how of their phases and the complex interplay of diffusive vs. displacive phase transformations to permit the tailoring of intricate microstructures across a wide spectrum of configurations. Here, we report on structural changes and phase transformations of Ti–Nb alloys during heating by in situ synchrotron diffraction. These materials exhibit anisotropic thermal expansion yielding some of the largest linear expansion coefficients (+ 163.9×10−6 to −95.1×10−6 °C−1) ever reported. Moreover, we describe two pathways leading to the precipitation of the α-phase mediated by diffusion-based orthorhombic structures, α″lean and α″iso. Via coupling the lattice parameters to composition both phases evolve into α through rejection of Nb. These findings have the potential to promote new microstructural design approaches for Ti–Nb alloys and β-stabilized Ti-alloys in general.Complex phase transformations in β-stabilised titanium alloys can dramatically change their α and β microstructures, providing tailorability for aerospace or biomaterial applications. Here the authors show that Ti-Nb alloys exhibit giant thermal expansions and identify two new pathways that lead to α phase formation.

Coexistence of conversion and intercalation mechanisms in lithium ion batteries: Consequences for microstructure and interaction between the active material and electrolyte

Abstract Conversion-type lithium ion batteries experience severe and partly irreversible phase transitions during operation. Such phase transitions reduce the crystallite size and therefore enhance the exchange of the Li ions. Concurrently, the irreversible nature of the phase transitions may deteriorate the cycling stability and the long-term capacity of conversion-type batteries. In this contribution, the observed correlations between the crystal structures of compounds which are employed as anodes in conversion-type Li ion cells, the capacity and the long-term stability of these cells are discussed. The central characteristics affecting the performance of conversion-type Li ion cells seem to be the similarity of crystal structures of intermediately forming phases during the charge/discharge process, which facilitates strong local preferred orientation of nanocrystallites of neighboring phases and for the formation of local strain fields at partially coherent phase boundaries. The effect of the above-mentioned phenomena on capacity and cycle stability is argued from the point of view of a possibly impeded ion exchange. Equilibrium open circuit potentials are calculated using the CALPHAD method. However, it is shown that in order to better reproduce the experimentally determined plateau voltages, thermodynamic descriptions of the non-equilibrium intermediate phases have to be included. In addition, the stabilization of the conversion reaction by the electrolyte is pointed out.