Nature is the world’s leading multidisciplinary science journal, which claims a monthly online readership of about nine million people for news, analysis, and commentary. It has space to publish around 7-8% or so of the 200 papers submitted each week, therefore having a publication in Nature, is considered a significant achievement in the scientific community.

We are therefore very proud to announce that InnovaXN student Isabella Mombrini has had her research published in this esteemed British weekly journal!

Isabella is working on a project involving advanced diffraction methods for characterisation of li-ion battery materials, which involves a collaboration between the ESRF, Johnson Matthey, and University College London (UCL).

The team of scientists has provided a detailed, internal temperature map of a lithium-ion battery during operation, using a non-destructive method pioneered at the ESRF, by combining high-speed X-ray diffraction computed tomography and multi-channel collimator X-ray diffraction at beamline ID15A. Their results provide insights for battery design that could lead to enhanced safety and durability.

For more details, check below the interview with Isabella!

1. Hi Isabella, first of all, congrats on this great achievement! How does it feel to have your research published in Nature, with your PhD still ongoing?

Hi Chiara, thank you! This publication is a big achievement for my group at UCL, for the ID15A beamline, and for me. We started with an idea during my first year at ESRF, and it is a major satisfaction knowing at the end we were able to achieve what we desired to measure. It took several experiments and a lot of data analysis, but we achieved a great result!

2. What are the main objectives and research questions addressed in your study?

I study the degradation mechanisms in Li-ion batteries. We need to study degradation mechanisms to optimize the longevity, safety, and capacity of a battery. . This is in order to resolve issues such as aging and extreme temperature suffering, to be able to prevent damage and explosion or toxic gas release. Our goal is to measure the degradation of materials during battery operation. At ID15A, we are able to analyse the device in its entirety, having also the required resolution to study the materials-level evolution. Both with a time resolution that leads us to map the device during high rates of charge and discharge current. In this article, we are presenting the method we developed to measure the internal temperature of a commercial 18650 cell during cycling. Measurement of internal temperature variation and strain could help to prevent the thermal runway caused by several degradation mechanisms arising in the cell during multiple cycling. Moreover, data from this and future experiments are useful in simulation analysis to design new devices and improve commercial batteries already in the market.

3. Were there any unexpected or surprising results that emerged during your research?

The commercial batteries I study are very complex systems. The degradation process in the device is a sum of many mechanisms. Most of the time is very difficult to differentiate between them and be able to measure just one parameter such as the temperature. In a battery, electrochemistry is coupled with volume expansion of the electrodes due to lithiation and delithiation. This causes strain on the entire device.  Also, due to the current flowing, the temperature rises and decreases when electrochemistry is applied. After many (many!) scientific discussions within our group, we designed new experiments with the purpose to be very accurate in measuring all the stress components involved in the battery cycling and be able to calculate the internal temperature as it is explained in the article.

4. Last but not least: where do you see yourself after InnovaXN?

First of all, InnovaXN was (and still is) a wonderful experience. I have to thank my supervisors for giving me the chance to participate in this project.  It was a real challenge, and I learned a lot. I also met amazing people on the way. I also need to thank everyone in the InnovaXN administration, because they were a really important support.  To answer the question, I would like to continue to work in the material science field. I love to work in the lab, testing materials and device performance. I had a very interesting experience in research, and I think it may be time to go back into the industry. Hopefully here in Grenoble!

Reference:

Heenan, J. et al, Nature, 17 May 2023.  DOI:10.1038/s41586-023-05913-z

Featured picture: Isabella Mombrini and Stefano Checchia, PhD student and scientist on ID15A, respectively, during the experiments on the beamline. © S. Candé.