Lithium Transport in an Amorphous LixSi Anode Investigated by Quasi-elastic Neutron Scattering

Robert L. Sacci, Michelle L. Lehmann, Souleymane O. Diallo, Yongqiang Q. Cheng, Luke L. Daemen, James F. Browning, Mathieu Doucet, Nancy J. Dudney, Gabriel M. Veith

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19 Scopus citations

Abstract

We demonstrate the room temperature mechanochemical synthesis of highly defective LixSi anode materials and characterization of the Li transport. We probed the Li+ self-diffusion using quasi-elastic neutron scattering (QENS) to measure the Li self-diffusion in the alloy. Li diffusion was found to be significantly greater (3.0 × 10-6 cm2 s-1) than previously measured crystalline and electrochemically made Li-Si alloys; the energy of activation was determined to be 0.20 eV (19 kJ mol-1). Amorphous Li-Si structures are known to have superior Li diffusion to their crystalline counterparts; therefore, the isolation and stabilization of defective Li-Si structures may improve the utility of Si anodes for Li-ion batteries.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)11083-11088
Number of pages6
JournalJournal of Physical Chemistry C
Volume121
Issue number21
DOIs
StatePublished - Jun 1 2017

Funding

Research supported by the Office of Basic Energy Science (BES-DOE) Division of Materials Science and Engineering (R.L.S., M.L.L., N.J.D., G.M.V., synthesis, characterization) and as part of a user proposal by Oak Ridge National Laboratory's Spallation Neutron Source (SNS), which is sponsored by the Scientific User Facilities Division, BES-DOE (S.O.D., Y.Q.C., L.L.D., J.F.B., M.D.). This manuscript has been authored by UT-Battelle, LLC under Contract No. DE-AC05-00OR22725 with the U.S. Department of Energy.

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