Solid State Electrochemical Methods for the Characterization of the Kinetics, Thermodynamics and Phase Equilibria of Lithium Battery Materials

Abstract

Cell voltages, energy and power densities depend on thermodynamic properties, phase equilibria and kinetic parameters of the materials employed as electrolytes and electrodes. Knowledge of these fundamental properties is essential for any systematic lithium battery development. Electrochemical techniques provide excellent possibilities of in-situ analysis in dependence of the discharge state instead of taking the galvanic cell apart and investigating the materials separately. Furthermore, interfacial processes between the electrolyte and electrodes may be analyzed which are very critical for the performance of batteries and are often not sufficiently sensitively seen by common other techniques.