Motivation: In the US, investment in solar and wind energy infrastructure and the electrification of the vehicle fleet will play a central role in meeting this target. A known barrier to wider-spread adoption of these new technologies remains the cost of energy-dense electrochemical storage systems (i.e., batteries). While the last thirty years of innovation have focused on understanding the link between electron and ionic transport and battery performance within these electrodes, quantitative relationships linking the way that these electrodes are manufactured to their performance are missing.

Approach: We seek to understand how formulation, coating, and electrochemical cycling influence the structure of porous electrodes used in lithium-ion batteries by using advanced neutron scattering techniques.