Modeling the Mesoscale Transport of Lithium-Magnetite Electrodes Using Insight from Discharge and Voltage Recovery Experiments

A multi-scale mathematical model, which accounts for mass transport on the crystal and agglomerate length-scales, is used to investigate the electrochemical performance of lithium-magnetite electrochemical cells. Experimental discharge and voltage recovery data are compared to three sets of simulations, which incorporate crystal-only, agglomerate-only, or multi-scale transport effects. Mass transport diffusion coefficients are determined by fitting the simulated voltage recovery times to experimental data. In addition, a further extension of the multi-scale model is proposed which accounts for the impact of agglomerate size distributions on electrochemical performance. The results of the study indicate that, depending on the crystal size, the low utilization of the active material is caused by transport limitations on the agglomerate and/or crystal length-scales. For electrodes composed of small crystals (6 and 8 nm diameters), it is concluded that the transport limitations in the agglomerate are primarily responsible for the long voltage recovery times and low utilization of the active mass. In the electrodes composed of large crystals (32 nm diameter), the slow voltage recovery is attributed to transport limitations on both the agglomerate and crystal length-scales

Momentum Distribution in Nuclear Matter and Finite Nuclei

A simple method is presented to evaluate the effects of short-range correlations on the momentum distribution of nucleons in nuclear matter within the framework of the Green's function approach. The method provides a very efficient representation of the single-particle Green's function for a correlated system. The reliability of this method is established by comparing its results to those obtained in more elaborate calculations. The sensitivity of the momentum distribution on the nucleon-nucleon interaction and the nuclear density is studied. The momentum distributions of nucleons in finite nuclei are derived from those in nuclear matter using a local-density approximation. These results are compared to those obtained directly for light nuclei like $^{16}O$.Comment: 17 pages REVTeX, 10 figures ps files adde

Quantification of the Voltage Losses in the Minimal Architecture Zinc-Bromine Battery Using GITT and EIS

The sources of voltage loss in the minimal architecture zinc bromine battery are characterized using the galvanostatic intermittent titration technique (GITT) and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) on a cell with a three electrode setup. Monitoring of the electrode voltages during charge/discharge indicate the full cell capacity is limited by the Zn/Zn2+ negative electrode. From GITT, the losses in voltage due to mass transport are shown to be relatively small in comparison to the IR resistance in the cell. In addition, it is shown that decreases in the open circuit voltage with respect to theory are likely caused by the complexation of Br2 into BrX−. Using EIS, the charge transfer resistances at each electrode and ohmic resistances of each component are determined. Overall, the main factors restricting the voltage of the cell are the ohmic resistances in the carbon cloth current collectors and in the electrolyte. Additionally, significant charge transfer resistances are observed at the negative electrode near the start of charge and end of discharge, when the amount of zinc plated on the carbon cloth electrode is minimal