In Situ Spectroscopy-Guided Design of Synthesis and Processing—Bridging the Gap from Battery Innovation to Manufacturing

Rechargeable batteries are among the key technologies for decarbonization with increasingly expanded applications in transportation and power grids. The demand for safer, longer-lasting, durable energy storage continues to fuel the need for battery innovation. This need, in turn, requires designing new materials, understanding how they function and developing scalable processes to manufacture them. Technical advances in characterization and computation have greatly facilitated materials design and discovery in the past decade. However, making battery materials to meet multifaceted performance needs (capacity, power, lifespan, and safety) has been nontrivial, often hindered by the practical engineering challenges encountered when optimizing the multiple intercorrelated steps – synthesis, processing, benchmarking, and upscaling.<br/>We will present our effort to develop <i>in situ</i> spectroscopies applied to studying the synthesis/processing of battery materials, thereby gaining insights into the process design for addressing engineering challenges in battery materials manufacturing. Specifically, synchrotron X-ray based in situ spectroscopies are developed for real-time probing of the intermediate phases and their structural evolution as the materials are being synthesized and processed. The technique allows access to the details of the processes, elucidating how the processing parameters affect the kinetic reaction pathways and, consequently, the target material phases and their properties. Insights gained from such studies provide a basis for materials synthesis/processing by design – rationally selecting synthesis/processing parameters to improve performance and reduce cost. Specific examples will be provided to demonstrate the in situ spectroscopy-guided design of calcination and other scalable processes for processing nickel-based cathode active materials. We will conclude by discussing emerging opportunities in automated experimentation and digitalized process design, bridging the gap from battery innovation to manufacturing.