Operando metrology for energy storage materials – A new European project
A Joint Research Project within the European Metrology Research Programme EMPIR
The development of new battery materials is key to improving the performance, lifetime, safety and cost of energy storage technologies like Li-ion batteries for electric vehicles. However, innovation is hampered by the inability of industry to reliably characterise their structure and chemistry in an operating environment.
This project will build a metrological framework supporting traceable operando characterisation of state-of-the-art battery materials under dynamic charge / discharge conditions. This includes advancement and validation of ex situ methods, establishing new protocols, cells and a best practice guide for operando approaches and developing new instrumentation enabling hybrid, multiparameter measurement to inform new materials development.
The project aims to develop operando techniques and hybrid (multi-modal) instrumentation, supported by quantitative and validated ex situ analysis and electrochemical measurements methods, to enable beyond stateoftheart materials characterisation for high-capacity energy storage technologies.
The specific objectives are:
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To develop traceable chemical, physical and structural analysis methods for ex-situ characterisation of energy storage materials and components.
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To establish a GoodBest Practice Guides for current and emerging in operando spectroscopy methods including X-ray spectroscopy and vibrational spectroscopy, validated by ex-situ analysis and round robin test.
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To develop dynamic electrochemical approaches combined with in operando spectroscopy for the assessment of material structure and cell performances.
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To develop novel in operando instrumentation and hybrid methodologies for multi-parameter spectro-electrochemical characterisation of materials and components for high-capacity energy storage.
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To facilitate the take up of the data and measurement infrastructure developed in the project by the measurement supply chain, standards developing organisations and key end users.
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Electrosciences’ role is to provide advanced data analysis tools for the large XRay data sets that are generated from operando battery measurements. The link between battery material performance, degradation, and cycling with the material’s structure and electrochemical response is a key focus of the project and we will be contributing our expertise in evaluating those relationships.
