Mesoscale Operando Video Microscopy for Battery Diagnosis and Optimization

Energy storage technologies are crucial for a sustainable energy future. Improving the safety and cycle life of electrochemical energy storage systems requires a precision mechanistic understanding of the fundamental electrochemical processes that are occurring at various interfaces. Due to the strong dynamic variations, such processes are hard to explain by knowledge established from materials thermodynamics and equilibrium chemistry. Operando characterizations that can examine the target interface or particle in their working conditions and in real-time offer the most straightforward observations and insights. In this talk, we will introduce the application of operando video microscopy using bench-top visible-light microscopes to diagnose electrochemical processes occurring at the mesoscale. Compared with advanced techniques that provide details at high resolutions, our platform not only allows convenient designs for well-controlled experiments, but also enables rapid assessment to generate high-throughput experimental data. Results on the combined theoretical and experimental study of metal dendrite growth in liquid and solid electrolytes, electrochemical phase transformation, and reaction heterogeneities in porous electrodes will be discussed.