New research from Cornell University has resulted in a novel electron microscopy technique to diagnose the mechanisms responsible for battery failure in extreme climates. Their first of its kind operando electrochemical transmission electron microscope (TEM) enables real-time chemistry viewing and allows them to collect movies that show the effects of temperature change on energy materials.
The groups research, which is published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, included developing a new algorithm to analyze the movies generated by the TEM.
"We now have an opportunity to investigate battery operation down to minus 50 degrees Celsius (minus 58 degrees Fahrenheit), as in extremely cold Arctic climates, and catalyst activation and degradation up to 300 degrees Celsius (572 degrees Fahrenheit) as in many industrial catalysts and every car's catalytic converter," said Yao Yang, assistant professor of chemistry and chemical biology.
"The data the Yang group collects is every computational scientist's dream. It allows us to see new scientific phenomena but is complicated enough that analyzing it requires new algorithms, which makes us feel the power of the joint experiment-theory approach," said Erik Thiede, assistant professor of chemistry and chemical biology.
Thiede’s group was originally developing machine learning and AI algorithms for use in cryo-em image analysis.
"Then I realized that our group's algorithms are also incredibly helpful in the automated analysis of gigabyte-to-terabyte microscopic images and movies from the Yang group," he added.
With many believing that widespread EV adaptation is currently limited by battery performance in extreme temperatures, the new analysis techniques developed could prove critical for advancing the industry by providing deeper understanding of temperature related reactions in energy materials.