There is a critical need to understand the role of an energy material's structure, morphology, and composition on device performance. This talk will present a rapid assessment tool based on the �Electrochemical Fin� concept to account for the 3-D shape of the microstructure, surface electrochemical reactions, and ion/electron diffusion in the bulk material. This approach uses analytical closed form solutions accurately represent the material microstructure as a detailed 3-D network. The actual 3-D material microstructure is imaged and characterized using a synchrotron-based transmission x-ray microscope at the nanoscale. Three-dimensional structures within the sample volume are imaged and tomographically reconstructed at sub-20 nm spatial resolution. To demonstrate this approach, solid oxide fuel cell, Li-ion battery, and dye-sensitized solar cell electrodes are examined to provide fundamental insight into the origins of microstructured-induced transport losses during operation. Preliminary results indicate that computational requirements of this analytical approach is orders of magnitude less than comparable numerical methods such as finite element or lattice Boltzmann. This work is supported by an Energy Frontier Research Center on Science Based Nano-Structure Design and Synthesis of Heterogeneous Functional Materials for Energy Systems (HeteroFoaM Center) funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences (Award DE-SC000106).

Rapid 3D microstructure performance assessment tool for electrochemical energy devices

246th National Meeting (2013)

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