In Situ Diffusion Measurements of Next Generation Cathodes Materials by Muon Spectroscopy

The development of high capacity cathode materials is becoming increasingly vital as the electric vehicle necessity grows rapidly worldwide. Ni-rich cathode material possess excellent potential for use in such next-generation battery technology, offering high practical capacities (> 200 mAh/g) and significant removal of unethically mined and expensive cobalt. However, debilitating degradation processes over repeated cycling are limiting the materials usable lifetime. We plan to perform ionic diffusion measurements for an in situ cell over repeated cycling at high potentials, where degradation mechanisms are the most destructive. This will allow us to elucidate key ionic diffusion parameter changes that occur within the material which can be linked to complementary information from other techniques to provide a comprehensive picture of how degradation mechanisms affect ionic transport.