Understanding Transformations in Battery Materials Using in Situ and Operando Experiments: Progress and Outlook

TLDR

Recent progress in battery research has been driven by in situ and operando techniques that reveal how materials change, transform, and degrade during charge and discharge. This perspective aims to highlight recent successes of in situ and operando experiments across diverse battery materials and to outline four emerging focus areas where these techniques are expected to make a significant impact. The authors discuss applying in situ and operando methods to alloy/conversion electrodes, intercalation electrodes, alkali metal anodes, solid‑state batteries, advanced data analytics, multi‑scale dynamics, and atomic‑scale interphase evolution. They anticipate that continued investigation of battery inner workings across time and length scales will accelerate the development of future battery technologies.

Abstract

Over the past decade, significant progress has been made toward understanding the intricate dynamics that underlie the operation of batteries. The development of in situ and operando experimental techniques has been critical for revealing how materials change, transform, and degrade within battery systems during charge and discharge. This Perspective first highlights recent successes in the use of in situ and operando experiments to understand dynamics in a variety of different battery materials, including alloy/conversion electrodes, intercalation electrodes, and alkali metal anodes. We then discuss four emerging focus areas in which in situ and operando experiments are expected to make an impact. These areas include solid-state batteries, improved data analytics, the linkage of dynamics across time and length scales, and understanding the atomic-scale evolution of interphases. We expect that continued progress in investigating the elaborate inner workings of battery systems across time and length scales will help to advance future battery technologies.