Enhanced Imaging of Lithium Ion Battery Electrode Materials

The authors present for the first time a new methodology of contrast enhancement for 3D imaging, including novel advanced quantification, on a commercial Lithium Iron Phosphate (LFP) LiFePO₄ cathode. The aim of this work is to improve the quality of the 3D imaging of challenging battery materials by developing methods to increase contrast between otherwise previously poorly differentiated phases. This is necessary to enable capture of the real geometry of electrode microstructures, which allows measurement of a wide range of microstructural properties such as pore/particle size distributions, surface area, tortuosity and porosity. These properties play vital roles in determining the performance of battery electrodes.