Understanding Electrolyte Degradation, Gas Evolution and SEI Formation in Hard Carbon Anodes in Sodium ion Batteries using Sensitive Instantaneous Electrochemistry Mass Spectrometry

Sarat Alabidun^a, Bethan J V Davies^b, Maria Crespo- Ribadeynera^a, Ifan E.L Stephens^b, Maria-Magdalena Titirici^a

^aDepartment of Chemical Engineering, Imperial College London, London SW7 2AZ, England, UK.

^bDepartment of Materials, Imperial College London, South Kensington Campus, London, United Kingdom

Materials for Sustainable Development Conference (MATSUS)
Proceedings of Materials for Sustainable Development Conference (MAT-SUS) (NFM22)

#SusEnergy - Sustainable materials for energy storage and conversion

Barcelona, Spain, 2022 October 24th - 28th

Organizers: Tim-Patrick Fellinger and Magda Titirici

Poster, Sarat Alabidun, 353
Publication date: 11th July 2022

In the exploration of alternative battery technologies to allow for diversification from lithium-ion batteries, there is the need to fully understand current contending technologies in order to develop, improve their performance and eventually scale up. Consequently, in-operando studies are the ideal method to better understand battery behaviour, however setting up these techniques can be complex and not entirely representative.

Sodium ion batteries are considered a competitively applicable technology for varied utilization due to their similar chemical properties to lithium. These similarities also make it easy to transfer technologies on a larger industrial scale. Sodium ion batteries however differ from lithium in their degradation mechanism due to an increased reactivity of sodium. As a result, the solid electrolyte interface is less stable and more reactive, while the carbonate electrolyte commonly used in both systems have been shown to decompose more favourably in sodium batteries. In addition to this, side reactions aiding degradation are observed in sodium batteries.

Here, we introduce a novel electrochemistry mass spectrometry technique in the study of degradation mechanisms and gas evolution in sodium ion batteries, initially focusing on the hard carbon anode. This technique analyses the gases evolved during electrochemical cycling in a time sensitive manner, using a specially designed cell attached to the mass spectrometer, in addition to a micro-fabricated silicon membrane chip which allows for instantaneous transfer of volatile species from the cell to the mass spectrometer without differential pumping, thereby reducing loss of analyte and allowing for faster detection and more accurate analysis. Combined with other surface and electrochemical characterisation techniques, this technique gives insight to the degradation mechanisms and SEI formation mechanisms in sodium ion batteries.

References:

[1] Ding R, Huang Y, Li G, Liao Q, Wei T, Liu Y, et al. Carbon Anode Materials for Rechargeable Alkali Metal Ion Batteries and in-situ Characterization Techniques. Front Chem. 2020;8:607504.

[2] Mogensen R, Brandell D, Younesi R. Solubility of the solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) in sodium ion batteries. ACS Energy Letters. 2016;1(6):1173-8.

[3] 2. Trimarco DB, Scott SB, Thilsted AH, Pan JY, Pedersen T, Hansen O, et al. Enabling real-time detection of electrochemical desorption phenomena with sub-monolayer sensitivity. Electrochimica Acta. 2018;268:520-30.

Acknowledgements:

We would like to acknowledge the Damian Cummins Scholarship for providing PhD funding

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