• Applied Microscopy
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• v.51
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• pp.19.1-19.7
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• 2021

The main purpose of this paper is the preparation of transmission electron microscopy (TEM) samples from the microsized powders of lithium-ion secondary batteries. To avoid artefacts during TEM sample preparation, the use of ion slicer milling for thinning and maintaining the intrinsic structure is described. Argon-ion milling techniques have been widely examined to make optimal specimens, thereby making TEM analysis more reliable. In the past few years, the correction of spherical aberration (Cs) in scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) has been developing rapidly, which results in direct observation at an atomic level resolution not only at a high acceleration voltage but also at a deaccelerated voltage. In particular, low-kV application has markedly increased, which requires a sufficiently transparent specimen without structural distortion during the sample preparation process. In this study, sample preparation for high-resolution STEM observation is accomplished, and investigations on the crystal integrity are carried out by Cs-corrected STEM.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.27-33
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• 2017

Conventional lithium ion batteries suffer from notorious safety issues caused by inevitable lithium dendrite formation and proliferation during over/fast charging processes. The lithium dendrites or mechanical damage on the separator induce internal short circuit in LiB that generates extensive amount of heat within contacted electrode surfaces through the separator. During this heat generation, conventional polyolefin separators shrinks dramatically, and increasing short circuit pathway, that causes the battery to explode. To overcome this serious issue, ceramic coated separators are developed in commercial LiB to enhance thermal and mechanical stability. In this paper, various size(IL = 488.5 nm, I = 538.7 nm, S = 810.3 nm, D = 1533.3 nm) of $Al_2O_3$ particles are coated using styrene-butadiene rubber(SBR) / carboxymethyl cellulose(CMC) binder on PE separator to investigate its thermal stability and electrochemical effect on LiB coin cell with NCM cathode and Li metal anode.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.55 no.6
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• pp.861-867
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• 2017

In order to improve the capacity and cycling stability of Ni-rich NCA cathode materials for lithium ion batteries, the boron and cobalt were doped in commercial $Li_{1.06}Ni_{0.91}Co_{0.08}Al_{0.01}O_2$ (NCA) powders. Commercial NCA particles are mixed composites such as secondary particles of about $5{\mu}m$ and $12{\mu}m$, and the particle size was decreased by doping boron and cobalt. The initial discharge capacities of the boron and cobalt doped NCA-B and NCA-Co were found to be 214 mAh/g and 200 mAh/g, respectively, which are higher values than that of the raw NCA cathode material. In particular, NCA-Co exhibits the best discharge capacity of 157 mAh/g after 20 cycles, which is probably due to the enhanced diffusion of lithium ion by crystal growth along with the c-axis direction.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.19-26
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• 2012

SEI (solid electrolyte interphase) layers are generated on a graphite negative electrode from three different electrolytes and low-temperature ($-30^{\circ}C$) charge/discharge performance of the graphite electrode is examined. The electrolytes are prepared by adding 2 wt% of vinylene carbonate (VC) and fluoroethylene carbonate (FEC) into a standard electrolyte solution. The charge-discharge capacity of graphite electrode shows the following decreasing order; FEC-added one>standard>VC-added one. The polarization during a constant-current charging shows the reverse order. These observations illustrate that the SEI film resistance and charge transfer resistance differ according to the used additives. This feature has been confirmed by analyzing the chemical composition and thickness of three SEI layers. The SEI layer generated from the standard electrolyte is composed of polymeric carbon-oxygen species and the decomposition products ($Li_xPF_yO_z$) of lithium salt. The VC-derived surface film shows the largest resistance value even if the salt decomposition is not severe due to the presence of dense film comprising C-O species. The FEC-derived SEI layer shows the lowest resistance value as the C-O species are less populated and salt decomposition is not serious. In short, the FEC-added electrolyte generates the SEI layer of the smallest resistance to give the best low-temperature performance for the graphite negative electrode.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.38 no.7
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• pp.589-594
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• 2014

Recently, higher capacity and energy density of lithium ion batteries are increasingly demanded for enhancing their performance in view of the rise in the commercial distribution of electric and hybrid vehicles. Computational analysis of a porous structure of vanadium pentoxide cathode was performed, employing a phase field model. The incipient model was designed as a spherical structure with cylindrical-shaped pores. Modifying the diameters and lengths of the pore cylinder and the number of pores, we considered different conditions for the porous vanadium pentoxide cathodes for analyzing their effect on the amount of lithium ion intercalated to them. Subsequently, we optimized the porous structure to contain the largest amount of intercalated lithium ion during discharge.

• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.307-310
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• 2016

$TiOF_2$, which has remarkable electrochemical and optical properties, is used in various applications such as Li-ion batteries, electrochemical displays, and photocatalysts. In addition, it is possible to utilize the template which is allowed to synthesize fluorine doped $TiO_2$ powders with hollow or faceted structures. However, common synthesis methods of $TiOF_2$ powders have some disadvantages such as the use of expensive and harmful precursors and batchtype processes with a limited production scale. In this study, we report a synthetic route for preparing $TiOF_2$ powders by using an inexpensive and harmless precursor and a continuous ultrasonic spray pyrolysis process under a controlled atmosphere to address the aforementioned problems. The synthesized powder has an average size of $1{\mu}m$, a spherical shape, a pure $TiOF_2$ phase, and exhibits a band-gap energy of 3.2 eV.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.54 no.1
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• pp.16-21
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• 2016

Silicon/Carbon/CNT composites as anode materials for lithium-ion batteries were synthesized to overcome the large volume change during lithium alloying-de alloying process and low electrical conductivity. Silicon/Carbon/CNT composites were prepared by the fabrication processes including the synthesis of SBA-15, magnesiothermic reduction of SBA-15 to obtain Si/MgO by ball milling, carbonization of phenolic resin with CNT and HCl etching. The prepared Silicon/Carbon/CNT composites were analysed by XRD, SEM, BET and EDS. In this study, the electrochemical effect of CNT content to improve the capacity and cycle performance was investigated by charge/discharge, cycle, cyclic voltammetry and impedance tests. The coin cell using Silicon/Carbon/CNT composite (Si:CNT=93:7 in weight) in the electrolyte of $LiPF_6$ dissolved in organic solvents (EC:DMC:EMC=1:1:1 vol%) has better capacity (1718 mAh/g) than those of other composition coin cells. The cycle performance of coin cell was improved as CNT content was increased. It is found that the coin cell (Si:CNT=89:11 in weight) has best capacity retension (83%) after 2nd cycle.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.259-266
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• 2010

Porous poly(propylene) supported gel polymer electrolytes (GPE) were synthesized by thermal polymerization of DEGDMA [Di(ethylene glycol) dimethacrylate] in electrolyte solutions (1 M solution of $LiPF_6$ in EC/DEC 1 : 1 mixture) at $70^{\circ}C$. AC impedance spectroscopy and cyclic voltammetry were used to evaluate its ionic conductivity and electrochemical stability window of the GPE membranes. Lithium ion battery (LIB) cells were also fabricated with $LiNi_{0.8}Co_{0.2}O_2$/graphite and GPE membranes via thermal polymerization process. Through the thermal polymerization, self sustaining GPE membranes with sufficient ionic conductivities (over $10^{-3}\;S/cm$) and electrochemical stabilities. The LIB cell with 5% monomer showed the best rate-capability and cycleability.

• Journal of Power System Engineering
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.104-109
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• 2013

Tin and Tinoxide nanoparticles were prepared by arc-discharge nanopowder process. The negative electrode were fabricated using Tin and Tinoxide nanopower. The microstructure and electrochemistry properties were investigated and compared between Tin and Tinoxide. The oxidation film has microstructure of core/shell type and the shell which was attached around Tin nanoparticle consisted of amorphous $SnO_2$. The shape of Tinoxide nanoparticles was formed with irregular shape in comparison with Tin particle. Initial discharge capcity of Tinoxide electrode possesed about 1000mAh/g, which is about 320mAh/g higher than Tin electrode. Irreversible capacity of Tin electrode is much higher than Tinoxide. The cycle performance of Tinoxide electrode was indicated that is batter than Tin. The Tin negative electrode lost most of capacity after 4 cycle but Tinoxide electrode still retained the capacity. The Tinoxide does show some promise as Li-ion battery anode due to their large reversible capacity at low potentials.

• Journal of the Korean Magnetics Society
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.65-70
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• 2007

In this paper, we composed the $LiFePO_4$ for the reversible use as the replacement material of the Li ion batteries and confirmed the good quality of the structure of the samples with the sintering temperature $675^{\circ}C,\;750^{\circ}C,\;and\;800^{\circ}C$ for 30 hours at nitrogen atmosphere. We also investigated the size of the particles through SEM picture and the change of the sintering temperature and the $Fe^{+3}$ content after charging the materials with 1 V, 160 mA and 3 V, 40 mA for 3 hours by Mossbauer spectroscopy. Also we can observe the increase on the $Fe^{+3}$ content at the charge condition and the increase of the amount ratio of the $Fe^{+3}$ ion only in sintering temperature $675^{\circ}C$ according to the increase of the electric charge. We cannot observe the change of the $Fe^{+3}$ ion in sintering temperature $800^{\circ}C$ after charging.