title: In-situ Multimodal Imaging and Spectroscopy of Mg Electrodeposition at Electrode-Electrolyte Interfaces.
abstract: We report the study of Mg cathodic electrochemical deposition on Ti and Au electrode using a multimodal approach by examining the sample area in-situ using liquid cell transmission electron microscopy (TEM), scanning transmission X-ray microscopy (STXM) and X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS). Magnesium Aluminum Chloride Complex was synthesized and utilized as electrolyte, where non-reversible features during in situ charging-discharging cycles were observed. During charging, a uniform Mg film was deposited on the electrode, which is consistent with the intrinsic non-dendritic nature of Mg deposition in Mg ion batteries. The Mg thin film was not dissolvable during the following discharge process. We found that such Mg thin film is hexacoordinated Mg compounds by in-situ STXM and XAS. This study provides insights on the non-reversibility issue and failure mechanism of Mg ion batteries. Also, our method provides a novel generic method to understand the in situ battery chemistry without any further sample processing, which can preserve the original nature of battery materials or electrodeposited materials. This multimodal in situ imaging and spectroscopy provides many opportunities to attack complex problems that span orders of magnitude in length and time scale, which can be applied to a broad range of the energy storage systems.
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Sciences and Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, California, 94720, USA.|Materials Science Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, Berkeley, California, 94720, USA.
authors.forename: Yimin A
authors.initials: YA
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: Materials Science Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, Berkeley, California, 94720, USA.|College of Energy, Xiamen University, Xiamen, 361005, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Zuwei
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Yin
authors.affiliation: Advanced Light Source, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, Berkeley, California, 94720, USA.
authors.forename: Maryam
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Farmand
authors.affiliation: Advanced Light Source, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, Berkeley, California, 94720, USA.|Department of Chemistry, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60607, USA.
authors.forename: Young-Sang
authors.initials: YS
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.affiliation: Advanced Light Source, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, Berkeley, California, 94720, USA.
authors.forename: David A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Shapiro
authors.affiliation: Materials Science Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, Berkeley, California, 94720, USA.|College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Xiamen University, Xiamen, 361005, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Hong-Gang
authors.initials: HG
authors.lastname: Liao
authors.affiliation: Materials Science Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, Berkeley, California, 94720, USA.|Department of Materials Science and Engineering, National Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu, 30010, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Wen-I
authors.initials: WI
authors.lastname: Liang
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, National Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu, 30010, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Ying-Hao
authors.initials: YH
authors.lastname: Chu
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Sciences and Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, California, 94720, USA.|Materials Science Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, Berkeley, California, 94720, USA.
authors.forename: Haimei
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zheng