Success and Caution in Using Synchrotron to Characterize Advanced Battery Materials

Synchrotron facilities provide a significant flux of x-ray photons across a broad range of energies, making them exceptional tools for characterizing battery materials. This presentation will showcase several successful case studies where synchrotron radiation was used to examine batteries at various length and time scales, revealing unique and valuable information about the materials. These studies include insights into the interphases on both the anode and cathode sides, phase transitions under far-from-equilibrium conditions, and the structural evolution of amorphous materials during synthesis and electrochemical cycling. Additionally, the second part of this talk will address the potential beam damage to samples caused by synchrotron x-rays. We will present examples, discuss the possible origins of this damage, and propose solutions to mitigate the issue.