Reciprocal space imaging of ionic correlations in intercalation compounds

The intercalation of alkali ions into layered materials has played an indispensable role in battery technology since the development of the first lithium-ion electrodes. Coulomb repulsion between the intercalants leads to ordering of the intercalant sublattice, which hinders ionic diffusion and impa...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature materials 2019-10, Vol.19 (1)
Main Authors: Krogstad, Matthew J., Rosenkranz, Stephan, Wozniak, Justin M., Jennings, Guy, Ruff, Jacob P. C., Vaughey, John T., Osborn, Raymond
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Condensed-matter physics
Materials for energy and catalysis
MATERIALS SCIENCE
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:The intercalation of alkali ions into layered materials has played an indispensable role in battery technology since the development of the first lithium-ion electrodes. Coulomb repulsion between the intercalants leads to ordering of the intercalant sublattice, which hinders ionic diffusion and impacts battery performance. While conventional diffraction can identify the long-range order that can occur at discrete intercalant concentrations during the charging cycle, it cannot determine short-range order at other concentrations that also disrupt ionic mobility. In this Article, we show that the use of real-space transforms of single-crystal diffuse scattering, measured with high-energy synchrotron X-rays, allows a model-independent measurement of the temperature dependence of the length scale of ionic correlations along each of the crystallographic axes in sodium-intercalated V2O5. The techniques described here provide a new way of probing the evolution of structural ordering in crystalline materials.
ISSN:1476-1122
1476-4660