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Stanford-led team reveals nanoscale secrets of rechargeable batteries

Aug 4 2016

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Education, Research
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William Chueh, assistant professor of materials science and engineering at Stanford and a faculty scientist at the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, has devised a way to observe the electrochemical reaction that fuels the most common rechargeable cell in use today: the lithium-ion battery. Chueh’s team utilized brilliant X-rays and cutting-edge microscopes at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s Advanced Light Source. Their research discovered that the charging process (delithiation) is significantly less uniform than discharge (lithiation) and the researchers also found that faster charging improves uniformity, which could lead to new and better battery designs and power management strategies.