(Digital Presentation) Operando X-Ray CT Analysis of Silicon-Solid Electrolyte Mechanical Interface of All-Solid-State Battery
Authors: Matsumoto Mao , Sakka Yuya , Zhong Chengchao , Shimoda Keiji , Okazaki Ken'ichi , Yamashige Hisao , Orikasa Yuki 
Published: February 2024

Silicon has a theoretical capacity about 10 times that of graphite is expected to be one of the next-generation anode materials to further increase the capacity of batteries. However, silicon has a large volume change during charging and discharging, which result in poor cyclability. Although morphological change of silicon has been shown in a lot of previous studies, most of them are ex-situ observations using electron microscopes such as SEM and are two-dimensional observations1). Previous studies have shown that silicon may fulfill its potential as an all-solid-state battery anode material with the garnet oxide-based solid electrolyte2). Further understanding of the expansion and shrinkage mechanism of silicon is needed to improve battery performance using silicon anode. Synchrotron X-ray computed tomography (X-ray CT) is a technique that can measure the internal structure of a battery in three dimensions with micrometer-order spatial resolution in a short time. In addition, operando X-ray CT measurement is possible under charging and discharging in an all-solid-state battery3). In this study, we analyzed that morphological changes of silicon during charging and discharging by operando X-ray CT measurements.

We used LiNi1/3Co1/3Mn1/3O2 (NCM), Li6PS5Cl (LPSCl) and acetylene black (AB), which were mortar-mixed in a mass ratio of 1:1:0.1 as the cathode composite material, and Si, LPSCl and AB in a mass ratio of 1:2.78:0.42 as anode composite material. Si｜LPSCl｜NCM all-solid-state cells were assembled. X-ray CT measurements at SPring-8 BL20XU using 20 keV X-rays while performing constant current charge/discharge measurement at 2.3×10-3 A cm-2. The pixel resolution was 0.5 µm. A silicon particle was extracted from the X-ray CT images obtained from X-ray CT measurements to observe the morphological changes of silicon during the charging and discharging reaction.

Cracks were observed in the silicon particle due to silicon shrinkage during the delithiation process. In addition, the silicon/solid electrolyte interface changed so that the silicon formed shell voids at the surface of silicon particles. This indicates that the plasticity of the LPSCl solid electrolyte cannot follow the form change of the interface. However, shell voids in the interface were formed for all directions, but some parts remained in contact area between the silicon particles and the solid electrolyte. The isolation of silicon particles from the solid electrolyte interface is suggested to be one of the factors causing the poor cycle performance because of the lithium ion reaction path is limited.

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3) Y. Sakka, H. Yamashige, A. Watanabe, A. Takeuchi, M. Uesugi, K. Uesugi and Y. Orikasa, J. Mater. Chem. A, 10, 16602–16609 (2022).