Defect and structural evolution under high-energy ion irradiation informs battery materials design for extreme environments

Muhammad Mominur Rahman; Wei Ying Chen; Linqin Mu; Zhengrui Xu; Ziqi Xiao; Meimei Li; Xian Ming Bai; Feng Lin

doi:10.1038/s41467-020-18345-4

Defect and structural evolution under high-energy ion irradiation informs battery materials design for extreme environments

Muhammad Mominur Rahman, Wei Ying Chen, Linqin Mu, Zhengrui Xu, Ziqi Xiao, Meimei Li, Xian Ming Bai, Feng Lin

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

41 Scopus citations

Abstract

Understanding defect evolution and structural transformations constitutes a prominent research frontier for ultimately controlling the electrochemical properties of advanced battery materials. Herein, for the first time, we utilize in situ high-energy Kr ion irradiation with transmission electron microscopy to monitor how defects and microstructures evolve in Na- and Li-layered cathodes with 3d transition metals. Our experimental and theoretical analyses reveal that Li-layered cathodes are more resistant to radiation-induced structural transformations, such as amorphization than Na-layered cathodes. The underlying mechanism is the facile formation of Li-transition metal antisite defects in Li-layered cathodes. The quantitative mathematical analysis of the dynamic bright-field imaging shows that defect clusters preferentially align along the Na/Li ion diffusion channels (a-b planes), which is likely governed by the formation of dislocation loops. Our study provides critical insights into designing battery materials for extreme irradiation environments and understanding fundamental defect dynamics in layered oxides.

Original language	English
Article number	4548
Journal	Nature Communications
Volume	11
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-18345-4
State	Published - Dec 1 2020
Externally published	Yes

Funding

This work is primarily supported by The Thomas F. and Kate Miller Jeffress Memorial Trust, Bank of America, Trustee, and the Jeffress Trust Awards Program in Interdisciplinary Research. F.L. and X.-M.B. also acknowledge their startup funds at Virginia Tech. The Na cathode was developed based on a project funded by the National Science Foundation (No. CBET-1912885). The Li cathode was developed based upon work supported by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) under the Award Number: DE-EE0008444. The irradiation work at the IVEM User Facility at Argonne National Laboratory was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Nuclear Energy under DOE Idaho Operations Office Contract DE-AC07-051D14517 as part of a Nuclear Science User Facilities experiment. X.-M.B. acknowledges the high-performance computing facilities at Virginia Tech’s Advanced Research Computing.

Funders	Funder number
National Science Foundation	1912885
U.S. Department of Energy	DE-AC07-051D14517
Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy	DE-EE0008444
Office of Nuclear Energy
Thomas F. and Kate Miller Jeffress Memorial Trust

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This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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10.1038/s41467-020-18345-4

Cite this

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abstract = "Understanding defect evolution and structural transformations constitutes a prominent research frontier for ultimately controlling the electrochemical properties of advanced battery materials. Herein, for the first time, we utilize in situ high-energy Kr ion irradiation with transmission electron microscopy to monitor how defects and microstructures evolve in Na- and Li-layered cathodes with 3d transition metals. Our experimental and theoretical analyses reveal that Li-layered cathodes are more resistant to radiation-induced structural transformations, such as amorphization than Na-layered cathodes. The underlying mechanism is the facile formation of Li-transition metal antisite defects in Li-layered cathodes. The quantitative mathematical analysis of the dynamic bright-field imaging shows that defect clusters preferentially align along the Na/Li ion diffusion channels (a-b planes), which is likely governed by the formation of dislocation loops. Our study provides critical insights into designing battery materials for extreme irradiation environments and understanding fundamental defect dynamics in layered oxides.",

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AU - Xu, Zhengrui

AU - Xiao, Ziqi

AU - Li, Meimei

AU - Bai, Xian Ming

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Defect and structural evolution under high-energy ion irradiation informs battery materials design for extreme environments

Abstract

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