Charge Photometry
Seeing inside batteries with light
Operando insights into state-of-charge & morphology with single particle resolution
Charge photometry is an innovative new way to visualise battery performance and degradation in cycling electrodes. It images the electrode during battery operation, capturing local changes to the state-of-charge and morphology of individual active particles, alongside synchronised electrochemistry data.​
How does it work?
Ion (de)intercalation alters the electronic structure of the active material, changing the intensity of the scattered light detected
Bench-top optical microscope
Reflected & scattered light
Incident light
Optically-accessible coin cell
with fully-integrated electrochemical control
Detected charge photometry contrast
Electrode
Charge photometry exploits the principles of optical interference reflection microscopy to detect scattered light from the active particles. Ion insertion and extraction in the active particles give rise to changes in the detected optical contrast, reporting on the local state-of-charge.
Critically, this universal principle means that the charge photometry is agnostic to the underlying battery chemistry and can be applied to a wide range of materials.
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Furthermore, as the technique is optical microscopy based, morphology information on the active particles is also collected, alongside synchronised electrochemistry data.
Applications
Discover how much of your material is active and where performance is lost.
Discover what limits your charging rate performance on the active particle level
Charge
Fully lithiated region
Partially delithiated region
Developing Li ion gradients
Discover the processes leading to accelerated capacity loss
Electrically disconnected fragment
Trapped Li ions