RESUMEN
Operando powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD) is a widely employed method for the investigation of structural evolution and phase transitions in electrodes for rechargeable batteries. Due to the advantages of high brilliance and high X-ray energies, the experiments are often carried out at synchrotron facilities. It is known that the X-ray exposure can cause beam damage in the battery cell, resulting in hindrance of the electrochemical reaction. This study investigates the extent of X-ray beam damage during operando PXRD synchrotron experiments on battery materials with varying X-ray energies, amount of X-ray exposure and battery cell chemistries. Battery cells were exposed to 15, 25 or 35â keV X-rays (with varying dose) during charge or discharge in a battery test cell specially designed for operando experiments. The observed beam damage was probed by µPXRD mapping of the electrodes recovered from the operando battery cell after charge/discharge. The investigation reveals that the beam damage depends strongly on both the X-ray energy and the amount of exposure, and that it also depends strongly on the cell chemistry, i.e. the chemical composition of the electrode.
RESUMEN
Iron(iii) hydroxide phosphate hydrate Fe1.13(PO4)(OH)0.39(H2O)0.61 is investigated for the first time as a Na-ion battery cathode, which reveals that the material exhibits similar storage capacities for Na- and Li-ions at relatively low current rates (i.e. C/10). Interestingly, operando X-ray diffraction shows that insertion of Na-ions induces a solid solution transition in the crystalline Fe1.13(PO4)(OH)0.39(H2O)0.61 end-member simultaneously with a major amorphization. This result adds to the series of observations of phosphate-based materials undergoing order-disorder transitions during Na-ion storage. Fe1.13(PO4)(OH)0.39(H2O)0.61 is thus ideal for enhancing our knowledge on such phenomena. To this end, using total X-ray scattering with pair distribution function analysis, we show that the amorphous phase is Na-rich NaxFe1.13(PO4)(OH)0.39(H2O)0.61 with the local [FeO6]-[PO4] motif retained but with coherence lengths of only ca. 0.6 nm. Our investigation also reveals that the crystallinity of Fe1.13(PO4)(OH)0.39(H2O)0.61 is regained upon Na-extraction (battery recharge), i.e. the order-disorder transition is reversible.