In-situ nano-tomography of Si-based anodes to reveal the particle displacemnet upon different charging conditions

Fast charging rates among high capacity, safety and high cycling stability are a key ingredient for next-generation lithium-ion batteries. In particular future storage applications demand faster charging e.g. e-mobility, electronic devices, etc. A highly promising anode material for up-scalable industrial Li-ion batteries displays Si-graphite composites. Although Si shows a high theoretical capacitance, a big drawback concerns the strong volume expansion during charging, leading to microstructure alteration. Within this proposal, in-situ 3D microstructure investigations on novel industrial relevant miniaturized Si-based Li-ion full-cells upon various charging rates with about 100 nm voxel size shall be performed at the unique beamline ID16B for Gen1 & Gen2 Si-composite materials. The in-situ nano-tomography, incorporating phase contrast imaging, shall help to uncover the structure-property relationship and trigger improved Si-material designs for future Li-ion storage applications.