Asymmetric pathways in the
electrochemical conversion reaction of
NiO as battery electrode with high
storage capacity

Boesenberg, U.; Marcus, M.A.; Shukla, A.K.; Yi, T.; McDermott, E.; Teh, P.F.; Srinivasan, M.; Moewes, A.; Cabana, J.

Asymmetric pathways in the electrochemical conversion reaction of NiO as battery electrode with high storage capacity

journal contribution

posted on 2016-03-04, 00:00 authored by U. Boesenberg, M.A. Marcus, A.K. Shukla, T. Yi, E. McDermott, P.F. Teh, M. Srinivasan, A. Moewes, J. Cabana

Electrochemical conversion reactions of transition metal compounds create opportunities for large energy storage capabilities exceeding modern Li-ion batteries. However, for practical electrodes to be envisaged, a detailed understanding of their mechanisms is needed, especially vis-à-vis the voltage hysteresis observed between reduction and oxidation. Here, we present such insight at scales from local atomic arrangements to whole electrodes. NiO was chosen as a simple model system. The most important finding is that the voltage hysteresis has its origin in the differing chemical pathways during reduction and oxidation. This asymmetry is enabled by the presence of small metallic clusters and, thus, is likely to apply to other transition metal oxide systems. The presence of nanoparticles also influences the electrochemical activity of the electrolyte and its degradation products and can create differences in transport properties within an electrode, resulting in localized reactions around converted domains that lead to compositional inhomogeneities at the microscale.

Funding

This work was primarily supported by the Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Office of Vehicle Technologies of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) under Contract No. DE-AC02-05CH11231, as part of the Batteries for Advanced Transportation Technologies (BATT) Program. Exceptions to this statement are as follows. TY was supported as part of the Joint Center for Energy Storage Research, an Energy Innovation Hub funded by the U.S. DOE, Office of Science, Basic Energy Sciences. EM and AM wish to acknowledge funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) and the Canada Research Chair program. P.F. Teh grateful acknowledges the World Future Foundation (WFF) for PhD Prize in Environmental and Sustainability Research@NTU 2014. The m-XAS work was conducted at the Advanced Light source which is supported by the Director, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, of the U.S. DOE under Contract No. DE-AC02-05CH11231. The operando XAS experiments were carried out at the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource, a Directorate of SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and an Office of Science User Facility operated for the U.S. DOE Office of Science by Stanford University. The SSRL Structural Molecular Biology Program is supported by the DOE Office of Biological and Environmental Research, and by the National Institutes of Health, National Institute of General Medical Sciences (including P41GM103393) and the National Center for Research Resources (P41RR001209). Supporting ex situ XAS was carried out at the Pacific Northwest Consortium-X-ray Science Division (PNC/XSD) facilities at the Advanced Photon Source (APS), supported by the U.S. DOE Office of Science, the Canadian Light Source (CLS) and its funding partners, the University of Washington, and the APS. Use of the APS, an Office of Science User Facility operated for the DOE by Argonne National Laboratory, was supported by Contract No. DE-AC0

History

Publisher Statement

Publisher

Nature Publishing Group

issn

2045-2322

Issue date

2014-11-20

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