Emerging operando and x-ray pair distribution function methods for energy materials development
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erging characterization capabilities and the energy frontier Breakthroughs in functional materials and associated device performance can be driven by both advances in the materials themselves, or in the tools we use to probe and understand their function and limitations. New characterization capabilities can provide fresh insights for even familiar materials and problems to address fundamental questions relevant to materials development and device improvements. Innovations in materials characterization can be derived from entirely new experimental methodologies, from next-generation instruments with improved technical capabilities, from new measurement modalities, for example, enabled by operando sample environments, or from developments in data analysis. Advances in characterization have the potential to impact widespread areas of materials research, with functional materials enabling broad technologies from energy storage in lithium-ion batteries to selective capture of
radiological gases within porous materials for safer nuclear energy. Large scientific user facilities, such as synchrotron x-ray light sources, are centers of innovation in materials characterization. Synchrotron facilities support a diverse range of scattering, spectroscopic, and imaging-based characterization tools and instruments, with versatility in the experimental configuration supporting continued improvement and enhancements of instrument capabilities. The intense x-ray beams produced by synchrotrons allow large volumes of data to be efficiently collected in short periods of time, including fast time-resolved studies of materials dynamics. Notably, when synchrotron x-rays are of high energy (with very short wavelengths, ∼one-tenth that of most commercial x-ray scattering instruments), they can readily penetrate sample environments such as an operating battery device, to probe material function under real conditions, without perturbing
Karena W. Chapman, Argonne National Laboratory, USA; [email protected] DOI: 10.1557/mrs.2016.26
© 2016 Materials Research Society
MRS BULLETIN • VOLUME 41 • MARCH 2016 • www.mrs.org/bulletin
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EMERGING OPERANDO AND X-RAY PAIR DISTRIBUTION FUNCTION METHODS FOR ENERGY MATERIALS DEVELOPMENT
the system operation. High-energy x-rays such as these are also used for medical imaging, where x-rays penetrate the human body to reveal internal structures without damage to the patient. Operando experiments are increasingly being applied in battery research to capture dynamic reaction intermediates and explore kinetic effects.1,2 High-energy x-rays are critical to enabling x-ray pair distribution methods (PDF) methods (shown in Figure 1), because they provide access to the broad Q-range (the momentum transfer) that is needed for high-resolution, quantitative analysis. PDF methods have emerged as a versatile structure characterization tool capable of addressing traditionally challenging materials problems.3 This cutting-edge method provides insight into otherwise intractable materials problems, but in combination wi
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