Lithium Batteries for Electric Vehicles

The study will involve the use of optical microscopy, NMR spectroscopy, and crystallographic and electrochemical studies of the lithium-ion cathode material lithium nickel oxide for high energy and high power lithium batteries for electric vehicles. The specific questions to be addressed include the nature of the series of phase transitions that occur on delithation and the role that cation and electronic ordering has on these phase transitions. Local structural methods such as X-ray absorption spectroscopy and NMR spectroscopy will be used to study the Jahn-Teller ordering in these d-7 materials as a function of temperature. In the longer term, the effect of doping such as W on phase transitions and Jahn-Teller ordering will be explored, as will possible degradation modes.