Browsing by Author "Al Bahri, OK"

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    Correlating cycling history with structural evolution in commercial 26650 batteries using in operando neutron powder diffraction
    (Elsevier, 2017-03-01) Goonetilleke, D; Pramudita, JC; Hagan, M; Al Bahri, OK; Pang, WK; Peterson, VK; Groot, J; Berg, H; Sharma, N
    Ex situ and time-resolved in operando neutron powder diffraction (NPD) has been used to study the structural evolution of the graphite negative electrode and LiFePO4 positive electrode within ANR26650M1A commercial batteries from A123 Systems, in what to our knowledge is the first reported NPD study investigating a 26650-type battery. Batteries with different and accurately-known electrochemical and storage histories were studied, enabling the tell-tale signs of battery degradation to be elucidated using NPD. The ex-situ NPD data revealed that the intensity of the graphite/lithiated graphite (LixC6 or LiyC) reflections was affected by battery history, with lower lithiated graphite (LiC12) reflection intensities typically corresponding to more abused batteries. This indicates that the lithiation of graphite is less progressed in more abused batteries, and hence these batteries have lower capacities. In operando NPD allows the rate of structural evolution in the battery electrode materials to be correlated to the applied current. Interestingly, the electrodes exhibit different responses to the applied current that depend on the battery cycling history, with this particularly evident for the negative electrode. Therefore, this work illustrates how NPD can be used to correlate a battery history with electrode structure. Crown Copyright ©2016 Published by Elsevier B.V.
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    Electrochemically activated solid synthesis: an alternative solid-state synthetic method
    (Royal Society of Chemistry, 2018-09-29) Liu, JN; Andersen, HL; Al Bahri, OK; Bhattacharyya, S; Rawal, A; Brand, HEA; Sharma, N
    Solid-state synthesis is one of the most common synthetic methods in chemistry and is extensively used in lab-scale syntheses of advanced functional materials to ton-scale production of chemical compounds. It generally requires at least one or several high temperature and/or high-pressure steps, which makes production of compounds via solid-state methods very energy and time intensive. Consequently, there is a persistent economic and environmental incentive to identify less energy and time consuming synthetic pathways. Here, we present an alternative solid-state synthetic method, which utilizes structural changes, induced by an electrochemical "activation" step followed by a thermal treatment step. The method has been used to synthesize a Sc0.67WO4-type phase where Sc0.67WO4 has previously only been obtained at 1400 °C and 4 GPa for 1 h. Through our method the Sc0.67WO4-type phase has been prepared at only 600 °C and ambient pressure. Experimental factors that influence phase formation from the electrochemical perspective are detailed. Overall, the method presented in this work appears to be able to generate the conditions for unusual and new phases to form and thus becomes another tool for synthetic solid-state chemists. This in turn permits the exploration of a larger synthetic parameter space. © 2018 The Royal Society of Chemistry.
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    Structural evolution and stability of Sc2(WO4)3 after discharge in a sodium-based electrochemical cell
    (Royal Society of Chemistry, 2017-12-13) Andersen, HL; Al Bahri, OK; Tsarev, S; Johannessen, B; Schulz, B; Liu, JN; Brand, HEA; Christensen, M; Sharma, N
    Sc2(WO4)3, prepared by solid state synthesis and constructed as an electrode, is discharged to different states in half-cell batteries, versus a Na negative electrode. The structural evolution of the Na-containing electrodes is studied with synchrotron powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD) revealing an increase in microstrain and a gradual amorphization taking place with increasing Na content in the electrode. This indicates that a conversion reaction takes place in the electrochemical cell. X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) at the tungsten L3 absorption edge shows a reduction in the tungsten oxidation state. Variable temperature (VT) PXRD shows that the Sc2(WO4)3 electrode remains relatively stable at higher temperatures, while the Na-containing samples undergo a number of phase transitions and/or turn amorphous above ∼400 °C. Although, Sc2(WO4)3 is a negative thermal expansion (NTE) material only a subtle change of the thermal expansion is found below 400 °C for the Na-containing electrodes. This work shows the complexity in employing an electrochemical cell to produce Na-containing Sc2(WO4)3 and the subsequent phase transitions. © 2018 The Royal Society of Chemistry.