During ion transport in a secondary lithium ion battery, what is the lithium diffusion coefficient in the cathode material?
Previous efforts to answer this question yielded a troublesome variety of results. But precise answers were necessary in order to design lithium fuel cells and batteries with optimum charge/discharge performance and longer life.
Tohoku University researchers were recently able to establish those coefficients with precision, using an IMS 7f universal magnetic sector secondary ion mass spectrometer (SIMS) from CAMECA.
Read this brief report to discover how these characteristics — plus other advantages such as the instrument’s high reliability, low detection limits, superior depth/diffusion profiling, and wide versatility — helped unlock some significant secrets of lithium ion behavior.