Ex-situ study probing the accessibility of hard carbon anodes to li-ions in lithium-ion batteries.

Lithium ion batteries have had a huge impact on modern day life, as recognized by this year's Nobel Prize awards. To continue making advancements that meet the ever growing demands of our energy storage needs, it is really important to understand how the electrode functions from the nano-scale to the meso-scale. To this end an in-operando electrochemical cell has been built to probe structural changes within battery electrodes through total neutron scattering whilst the battery undergoes charge and dishcarge. The aims of this proposal are two-fold: to find the optimal thickness for these in-operando studies for both neutron total scattering and electrochemistry, and to answer the question of at which thickness do electrodes start storing lithium ions poorly and why.