Cryo-EM for battery materials and interfaces: Workflow, achievements, and perspectives
Suting Weng,
Yejing Li,
Xuefeng Wang
Affiliations
Suting Weng
Laboratory for Advanced Materials and Electron Microscopy, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China; School of Physical Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
Yejing Li
Laboratory for Advanced Materials and Electron Microscopy, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China; Corresponding author
Xuefeng Wang
Laboratory for Advanced Materials and Electron Microscopy, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China; School of Physical Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China; Tianmu Lake Institute of Advanced Energy Storage Technologies Co. Ltd., Liyang, Jiangsu 213300, China; Corresponding author
Summary: The emerging cryogenic electron microscopy (cryo-EM) has demonstrated its power and essential role in probing the beam-sensitive battery materials and delivering new insights. With the increasing interest in cryo-EM for battery materials and interfaces, herein we provide the strategies of obtaining fresh and native structural information with minimal artifacts, including sample preparation, transferring, imaging, and data interpretation. We summarize the recent achievements enabled by cryo-EM and point out some unsolved/potential questions in terms of the bulk materials, solid-solid interface, and solid-liquid interfaces of batteries. Finally, we conclude with perspectives on the future developments and applications of cryo-EM in battery materials and interfaces.
