Energy Materials & Devices

Novel energy materials and devices such as batteries, supercapacitors or fuel cells play a crucial role in facing our current and prospective challenges in energy supply and storage. However, the routine and almost artifact-free sample preparation and scale-bridging characterization of such environmentally and beam-sensitive materials and parts may be challenging. In Siegen, we already established advanced sample preparation, handling and characterization routines, which utilize inert environment or cryogenic conditions, or both (link to respective page). For example, advanced (cryo-)ultramicrotomy in conjunction with specialized transfer holders is successfully employed to obtain ultrathin slices even of whole devices like fuel cells or batteries (under development) for structural and chemical characterization by TEM, SEM and optical microscopy/spectroscopy. Moreover, dedicated inertgas gloveboxes are operated to synthesize, prepare and transfer sensitive materials directly into our TEM. Advanced in situ EM (e.g., heating, biasing, environmenal measurements) is employed and being developed to investigate dynamic processes under application-relevant conditions. Our research fields are:

• Ion transport in lithium/sodium-ion battery electrodes & ceramics
• Structure formation, degradation mechanisms, failure
• Methods developments

Contacts: Marco Hepp, Dr. Christian Wiktor, Prof. Benjamin Butz

J.P. Beaupain, K. Waetzig, S.-K. Otto, A. Henss, J. Janek, M. Malaki, A. Pokle, J. Müller, B. Butz, K. Volz, M. Kusnezoff, A. Michaelis
Reaction of Li_1.3Al_0.3Ti_1.7(PO₄)₃ and LiNi_0.6Co_0.2Mn_0.2O₂ in Co‑sintered Composite Cathodes for Solid-State Batteries
ACS Appl. Mater. Inter.. (2021)

M. Hepp, H. Wang, K. Derr, S. Delacroix, S. Ronneberger, F. Loeffler, B. Butz, V. Strauss,
Trained Laser-Patterned Carbon as High-Performance Mechanical Sensors,
NPJ Flex. Electron. (2021), accepted for publication

Z. Jian, N. Yang, M. Vogel, S. Leith, A. Schulte, H. Schönherr, T. Jiao, W. Zhang, J. Müller, B. Butz, X. Jiang
Flexible Diamond Fibers for High-Energy-Density Zinc-Ion Supercapacitors
Adv. Energy Mater. 2020, 2002202

Y. Li, Y. Li, A. Pei, K. Yan, Y. Sun, C.-L. Wu, L.-M. Joubert, R. Chin, A.L. Koh, Y. Yu, J. Perrino, B. Butz, S. Chu, Y. Cui
Atomic structure of sensitive battery materials and interfaces revealed by cryo-electron microscopy
Science 358 (2017), 506–510

B. Butz, R. Schneider, D. Gerthsen, M. Schowalter, A. Rosenauer
Decomposition of 8.5 mol% Y₂O₃-doped Zirconia and its contribution to the degradation of ionic conductivity
Acta Mater. 2009, 57, 5480–5490

B. Butz, P. Kruse, H. Störmer, D. Gerthsen, A. Müller, A. Weber, E. Ivers-Tiffée
Correlation between microstructure and degradation in conductivity for cubic Y₂O₃-doped ZrO₂
Solid State Ionics 2006, 117, 3275–3284