lithium-ion battery

Journal of Power Sources, (2015), Volume 275, 1 February 2015, Pages 866–876

Two-phase electrochemical lithiation in amorphous silicon
Jiangwei Wang, Yu He, Feifei Fan, Xiao-Hua Liu, Shuman Xia, Yang Liu, Thomas Harris, Hong Li, Jian Yu Huang, Scott X. Mao, and Ting Zhu
Nano Letters, Publication Date (Web): January 16, 2013
http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/nl304379k

Dear Colleagues,

Please consider to attend the symposium entitled  "Lithium ion batteries - when chemistry meets mechanics"  at the occasion of the Joint Society of Engineering Science (SES) 50th Annual Technical Meeting and ASME-AMD Annual Summer Meeting, July 28-31, 2013, at Brown University.

The description of the symposium is attached below.

The following speakers will contribute invited talks in the symposium: Yi Cui, William D. Nix, Martin Bazant, Brian Sheldon, Gleb Yushin, Scott Mao, Reiner Moenig, and Yue Qi

http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/jp307221q 

http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/nl302261w 

In a novel design of lithium-ion batteries, hollow electrode particles coated with stiff shells are used to mitigate mechanical and chemical degradation.  In particular, silicon anodes of such core-shell nanostructures have been cycled thousands of times with little capacity fading.  To reduce weight and to facilitate lithium diffusion, the shell should be thin.  However, to avert fracture and debonding from the core, the shell must be sufficiently thick.

Nano Letters , 12, 1392-1397 (2012). DOI:10.1021/nl204063u

Nano Lett. doi: 10.1021/nl204437t

Xiao Hua Liu and Jian Yu Huang, Energy Environ. Sci., 2011, DOI: 10.1039/C1EE01918J

Our GM/UM Advanced Battery Coalition at the department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Michigan is recruiting highly motivated and independent postdoctoral researchers to study in the general field of advanced Li-ion batteries and their fading mechanisms. The candidate should hold a doctor degree in Mechanics, Materials, Chemistry, Physics, or a relevant discipline. Past experience with finite element analysis, atomistic simulations, and programming is preferred.

Silicon can host a large amount of lithium, making it a promising electrode for high-capacity lithium-ion batteries.  Recent experiments indicate that silicon experiences large plastic deformation upon Li absorption, which can significantly decrease the stresses induced by lithiation and thus mitigate fracture failure of electrodes. These issues become especially relevant in nanostructured electrodes with confined geometries.

Silicon can host a large amount of lithium, making it a promising electrode for high-capacity lithium-ion batteries.  Upon absorbing lithium, silicon swells several times its volume; the deformation often induces large stresses and pulverizes silicon.

During charging or discharging of a lithium-ion battery, lithium is extracted from one electrode and inserted into the other.  This extraction-insertion reaction causes the electrodes to deform.  An electrode is often composed of small active particles in a matrix.  If the battery is charged at a rate faster than lithium can homogenize in an active particle by diffusion, the inhomogeneous distribution of lithium results in stresses that may cause the particle to fracture.  The distributions of lithium and stress in a LiCoO2 particle

In a lithium-ion battery, both electrodes are atomic frameworks that host mobile lithium ions. When the battery is being charged or discharged, lithium ions diffuse from one electrode to the other. Such an insertion reaction deforms the electrodes, and may cause the electrodes to crack. This paper uses fracture mechanics to determine the critical conditions to avert cracking. The method is applied to cracks induced by the mismatch between phases in crystalline particles of LiFePO4