Field-Limited Migration of Li-Ions in Li-Ion Battery

The migration of Li-ions in lithium-ion battery cannot be simply described by Fick\u27s second law; the interactions among ionic migration, field, and stress need to be taken into account when analyzing the migration of Li-ions. Using the theory of thermal activation process, the flux for ionic migration under concurrent action of electric field and mechanical stress is found to be a nonlinear function of the gradient of electric potential and the gradient of stress. Electric field can either accelerate or retard the growth of the lithiation layer, depending on polarity of the field

Transient Analysis of Diffusion-Induced Deformation in a Viscoelastic Electrode

In this study, we analyze the transient diffuse-induced-deformation of an electrode consisting of the conducting polymer polypyrrole (PPY) by using the theories of linear viscoelasticity and diffusion-induced stress. We consider two constitutive relationships with dependence of viscosity on strain rate: Kelvin-Voigt model and three-parameter solid model. A numerical method is used to solve the problem of one-dimensional, transient diffusion-induced-deformation under potentiostatic operation. The numerical results reveal that the maximum displacement occurs at the free surface and the maximum stress occurs at the fixed end. The inertia term causes the stress to increase at the onset of lithiation. The stress decreases with increasing lithiation time and approaches zero for prolonged lithiation. Compared with the two different constitutive relationships between the Kelvin-Viogt model and three-parameter solid model, it can be found that the spatiotemporal distribution of lithium ion concentrations in the Kelvin-Viogt model is larger than that in the three-parameter solid model at the same moment, whereas the stress of the Kelvin-Viogt model is smaller owing to more than one spring in the three-parameter solid model

On Electric Conduction of Amorphous Silicon Carbonitride Derived from a Polymeric Precursor

A long-existing problem that the conductivity of amorphous silicon carbonitrides derived from polymeric precursor increases significantly with pyrolysis temperature is investigated. We show that the conductivity exhibited an Arrhenius dependence on pyrolysis temperature, with the activation energy of ∼3.41 eV. Structural analysis using Raman spectroscopy reveals that the free carbon within the material undergoes a sp3-to-sp2 transition as pyrolysis temperature increases, with the activation energy of ∼3.6 eV. We conclude that the pyrolysis-temperature induced increase in the conductivity is mainly due to the increase in the conductivity of the free carbon. A simple model is proposed to correlate the two

Effects of Laser Power and Substrate on the Raman Shift of Carbon-Nanotube Papers

The progress in the fabrication of carbon-nanotube-based structures has made it possible to use Raman spectroscopy to measure the deformation states of carbon nanotubes and abutting materials. In this work, we investigate the effects of laser power and surrounding materials on the Raman shift of carbon-nanotube (CNT) papers for the laser intensity in a range of 0.071 to 1.415 kW/mm2 without action of mechanical loading. Two different configurations of the CNT papers are used in the Raman measurement; one uses a suspended CNT paper, and the other places a CNT paper on a glass or aluminum substrate. The experimental results reveal that there exist combinational effects of the laser power and abutting materials on the changes of the wavenumbers of the D, G and G′ bands of the CNT papers. We derive an analytical relation between the strain components, temperature and the change of the wavenumber of the Raman peak, which yields a proportional relationship between the change of the wavenumber of the Raman peak and the laser power. Such a relationship is supported by the experimental results

Effect of interface stresses on the elastic deformation of an elastic half-plane containing an elastic inclusion

AbstractThe effect of the interface stresses is studied upon the size-dependent elastic deformation of an elastic half-plane having a cylindrical inclusion with distinct elastic properties. The elastic half-plane is subjected to either a uniaxial loading at infinity or a uniform non-shear eigenstrain in the inclusion. The straight edge of the half-plane is either traction-free, or rigid-slip, or motionless, which represents three practical situations of mechanical structures. Using two-dimensional Papkovich–Neuber potentials and the theory of surface/interface elasticity, the elastic field in the elastic half-plane is obtained. Comparable with classical result, the new formulation renders the significant effect of the interface stresses on the stress distribution in the half-plane when the radius of the inclusion is reduced to the nanometer scale. Numerical results show that the intensity of the influence depends on the surface/interface moduli, the stiffness ratio of the inclusion to the surrounding material, the boundary condition on the edge of the half-plane and the proximity of the inclusion to the edge

Entropy change-induced elastic softening of lithiated materials

AbstractTo understand the “elastic softening” of Li–Si alloys for the development of Li-ion batteries, the effect of stress-induced change of entropy on the mechanical properties of lithiated materials is examined within the theories of thermodynamics and linear elasticity. An approach is presented whereby the change of Gibbs free energy is governed by the change of the mixture entropy due to stress-induced migration of mobile atoms, from which the contribution of the change of the mixture entropy to the apparent elastic modulus of lithiated materials is determined. The reciprocal of the apparent elastic modulus of a lithiated material is a linear function of the concentration of mobile Li-atoms at a stress-free state and the square of the mismatch strain per unit mole fraction of mobile Li-atoms

Fluorescence of CdSe/ZnS Quantum Dots in Toluene: Effect of Cyclic Temperature

Quantum dots (QDs) are the potential material for the application in optical thermometry, and have been successfully applied to solar cells, LEDs, bio-labeling, structural health monitoring, etc. In this paper, we study the fluorescence properties of CdSe/ZnS QDs in toluene under the action of heating-cooling cycles. The experimental results show that, in a heating-cooling cycle, increasing temperature causes red-shift of the emission peak and the decrease of the PL intensity, and decreasing temperature causes blue-shift of the emission peak and the increase of the PL intensity. The surface structures of the QDs likely are dependent on the cycle numbers, which cause the change of the excited energy state of the QDs in toluene. The results presented in this paper reveals the strong effects of cyclic temperature on the photoluminescence characteristics of QDs

Effect of Oxide on Surface Tension of Molten Metal

Oxides as one of the commonly activating fluxes used in active tungsten inert gas welding (A-TIG welding) can dramatically increase the penetration depth to 2–4 times that of conventional welding. Using the oscillation principle of inviscid fluid, a robust method is developed to measure the average surface tension of molten metal during A-TIG welding for four different oxide activating fluxes of B2O3, TiO2, SiO2, and MgO. The experimental results suggest that the oxygen released from the decomposition of oxides is the dominant factor contributing to the change of the surface tension, which can result in the change of the temperature coefficient from negative to positive and alter the Marangoni convection, leading to the increase in the penetration depth. However, oxygen of small amount or large amount has a negligible effect on the sign change of the temperature coefficient. For oxides of low melting points, the interaction between the electrons outside the arc and the neutral particles (atoms and molecules) formed from the dissolution of the oxides causes the constriction of the arc; for oxides of high melting points, the decrease of the spot area in the anode due to high resistivity of the oxides leads to the constriction of the arc