Amazing stuff! How much do we know about battery technology?
"A team ... has completed the first investigation into a widely acknowledged but often overlooked aspect of electrochemical cells: the nonuniformity of the liquid at the solid-liquid interfaces in the cells. ... microscopic imaging revealed that these interfacial structures, called electrical double layers (EDLs), tend to organize into specific configurations in response to chemical deposition on the surface of the solid. ...
Based on the data, the researchers proposed three primary responses in the EDLs: "bending," in which the layers appear to curve around the cluster; "breaking," in which parts of the layers detach to form new intermediate layers; and "reconnecting," in which the EDL layer above the cluster connects to a nearby layer with an offset in the layer number.
"These three patterns are quite universal," ..."
From the significance and abstract:
"Significance
Nucleation and growth at electrode–electrolyte interfaces is crucial for electrochemical energy conversion and storage. Here, we find that, at the very initial stage of surface nucleation, the local electrical double layers (EDLs) abruptly restructure. The initially flat, oscillatory liquid layers are strongly disrupted and continuously evolve as the size of the cluster increases. We identify three universal patterns of such EDL reconfigurations, quantify the spatial density profiles, and clarify the impact of the previously hidden, heterogeneous EDLs on the nucleation and growth kinetics.
Abstract
In electrochemical systems, the structure of electrical double layers (EDLs) near electrode surfaces is crucial for energy conversion and storage functions. While the electrodes in real-world systems are usually heterogeneous, to date the investigation of EDLs is mainly limited to planar, homogeneous substrates.
To bridge this gap, here we image the EDL structure of an ionic liquid/graphite battery anode system in the initial stage of interfacial nucleation and growth using our recently developed electrochemical 3D atomic force microscopy.
Upon surface nucleation of lithium-containing compounds, the local EDL layers exhibit pronounced restructuring, featuring bending, breaking, and/or reconnecting patterns that switch when the size of the local interphase cluster changes. These EDL reconfiguration patterns are likely universal during nucleation and growth, calling into attention the hitherto hidden contribution of EDL heterogeneity on electrochemical processes."
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