Effect of Radiation on the Morphology of Lithium-Ion Battery Cathodes
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Effect of Radiation on the Morphology of Lithium-ion Battery Cathodes Thesis Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Science in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Dandan He, B.S. Graduate Program in Nuclear Engineering The Ohio State University 2014 Thesis Committee: Lei Cao, Advisor Tunc Aldemir Mingzhai Sun Copyright by Dandan He 2014 Abstract The Lithium ion (Li-ion) battery is widely used as power source for consumer electronic devices due to its high energy density, large specific capacity. Recently, application of the Li-ion battery has been extended to aerospace, in which the outer space’s radiation environment has more stringent requirements for the battery performance. This type of battery also provides power for critical modern rescue, sampling equipment in nuclear environment, such as the robots deployed in the aftermath of Fukushima nuclear accident. As one of the most important components of these emergency response robots, the stability of the Li-ion battery under radiation is of crucial importance. The radiation effects on materials are generally categorized into four types: ionization, atomic displacement, impurity production, and energy release. To our knowledge, there has been no definitive study of such effects on Li-ion batteries and how ionizing radiation affects Li-ion batteries’ structure, strength, deformation, and electrical properties to final failure. ii In this work, the surface morphology of the Li-ion battery cathode before and after neutron and gamma ray radiation were characterized by atomic force microscopy (AFM). Distinct particle coarsening (size increase) of the cathode after irradiation was observed, which may primarily came from the crystal boundary migration driven by internal stress due to irradiation. There was a difference in the cathode particle size between thermal plus fast neutrons and fast neutrons alone and charge status of the Li-ion battery was also found to affect the cathode particle size change under radiations. X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns of the Li-ion battery cathodes showed that a crystal structure disordering occurred during irradiation process. Electrical test was then carried and a substantial capacity loss of the battery after gamma irradiation was seen based on the discharge curves. The possible corresponding radiation effects on the Li-ion battery were discussed. iii Dedication Dedicated to my family iv Acknowledgments First of all, my deepest appreciation goes to Prof. Cao, my advisor. Without the opportunity and support he offered, this work would be impossible. His expertise and rigorous thinking challenged me through the project and encouraged me to reach my goal in a timely manner. The serious and critical attitude I learned from him will definitely contribute much to my future work. Also, I would like to express my gratitude to Dr. Sun from the Davis Heart and Lung Research Institute. He gave me much assistance and support on the Atomic Force Microscopy. The experiment could not have started without his help. I am truly grateful to Dr. Qiu for his continual assistance. His encouragement gave me much motivation through the work. Since my research required interdisciplinary work, the support from other collaborators helps a lot for the final work. I am thankful to Prof. Yuan Zheng and Mr. Shimeng Li from Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering for their help on the battery electrical test. Also I want to thank Prof. v Jason Hattrick-Simpers, from the University of South Carolina, for the XRD work. I thank to the support staffs at the Ohio State University Research Reactor. I thank to Prof. Aldemir for serving as my committee member and providing important comments. In addition, I would like to show my greatest appreciation to my family and friends. In my most difficult time, it is their faith and encouragement that gave me the courage to move on. Finally, I want to thank to DTRA the financial support. Without the funding support, this work can not continue. vi Vita October 13, 1992 ....................................................Born-Anhui, China June, 2013 ..............................................................B.S. Mechanical Engineering, Huazhong University of Science and Technology 2013-present ...........................................................Graduate Research Associate, The Ohio State University Fields of Study Major Field: Nuclear Engineering vii Table of Contents Abstract .................................................................................................................................................... ii Dedication ............................................................................................................................................... iv Acknowledgments ................................................................................................................................ v Vita .......................................................................................................................................................... vii Lists of Tables ........................................................................................................................................ x List of Figures ....................................................................................................................................... xi Chapter 1: Introduction .................................................................................................................... 1 Chapter 2: Overview of radiation effect on materials ........................................................... 4 2.1. Ionization ........................................................................................................................... 4 2.2. Atomic displacement ..................................................................................................... 6 2.3. Impurity production ........................................................................................................ 8 2.4. Energy release .................................................................................................................. 9 Chapter 3: Related concepts about the Li-ion battery ........................................................ 11 3.1. Structure and mechanism of the Li-ion battery .................................................. 11 3.2. Electrical performance characteristics .................................................................. 13 3.3. Degradation of the Li-ion battery ........................................................................... 14 3.3.1. Formation of SEI ............................................................................................ 15 3.3.2. Thermal degradation ...................................................................................... 17 3.3.3. Mechanical and structure degradation ..................................................... 18 3.3.4. Lithium plating and dendrite formation .................................................. 19 3.3.5. Chemical decomposition and corrosion .................................................. 20 3.4. Characterization techniques ...................................................................................... 21 Chapter 4: Radiation effects on Li-ion battery ..................................................................... 28 4.1. Radiation effects on the electrical performance ................................................. 28 4.2. Radiation effects on the electrodes and electrolyte........................................... 29 4.3. Neutron radiation effects on the Li-ion battery .................................................. 31 viii Chapter 5: Experimental Setup for AFM measurement .................................................... 33 5.1. Samples ........................................................................................................................... 33 5.2. Discharging of the Li-ion polymer battery .......................................................... 35 5.3. Neutrons and Gamma Irradiation ........................................................................... 36 5.3.1. Neutron irradiation ......................................................................................... 36 5.3.2. Gamma irradiation .......................................................................................... 37 5.4. Measurement ................................................................................................................. 38 Chapter 6: AFM characterization of the Li-ion battery cathode ..................................... 40 6.1. AFM characterization of cathode samples after neutron radiation .............. 40 6.2. AFM characterizations of cathode after gamma radiation ............................. 45 6.3. Comparison between charged and uncharged cathodes .................................. 46 6.4. Theory and discussion ................................................................................................ 47 Chapter 7: XRD characterization of the Li-ion battery cathode ..................................... 52 7.1. Principle of XRD .......................................................................................................... 52 7.2. Experimental setup ...................................................................................................... 53 7.3. Results and discussion ...............................................................................................