Laboratory X-ray computed tomography imaging protocol allowing the operando investigation of electrode material evolution in various environments

Krzysztof Dzięcioł; Yasin Emre Durmus; Hermann Tempel; Hans Kungl; Alexander Bauer; Rüdiger-A Eichel

doi:10.1016/j.isci.2023.107097

Laboratory X-ray computed tomography imaging protocol allowing the operando investigation of electrode material evolution in various environments

iScience. 2023 Jun 14;26(7):107097. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2023.107097. eCollection 2023 Jul 21.

Authors

Krzysztof Dzięcioł¹, Yasin Emre Durmus¹, Hermann Tempel¹, Hans Kungl¹, Alexander Bauer¹, Rüdiger-A Eichel^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Fundamental Electrochemistry (IEK-9), Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, Jülich, Germany.
² Institut für Materialien und Prozesse für elektrochemische Energiespeicher und wandler, RWTH Aachen University, 52074 Aachen, Germany.

Abstract

A robust imaging protocol utilizing laboratory XCT is presented. Hybrid 2D/3D imaging at different scales with real-time monitoring allowed to assess, in operation, the evolution of zinc electrodes within three environments, namely alkaline, near-neutral, and mildly acidic. Different combinations of currents were used to demonstrate various scenarios exhibiting both dendritic and smooth deposition of active material. Directly from radiograms, the volume of the electrode and therefore its growth/dissolution rate was estimated and compared against tomographic reconstructions and theoretical values. The protocol combines simplistic cell design with multiple three-dimensional and two-dimensional acquisitions at different magnifications, providing a unique insight into electrode's morphology evolution within various environments.

Keywords: Materials characterization; Materials chemistry; Materials science.