From: 2025-11-27 14:15 to 15:00
Place: Lecturehall KC:F
Contact: andrea [dot] scotti [at] fkem1 [dot] lu [dot] se

A Physical Chemistry seminar by Joshaniel Cooper, Instrument Scientist for ESTIA, European Spallation Source, Lund

When: 27 November, 14:15-15:00

Where: Lecturehall KC:F

Title: What I learned by making the world’s worst lithium battery

Abstract: Lithium-ion batteries are extremely important in modern life, but have many poorly understood (and difficult to probe) processes, slowing down their development. Neutron reflectivity is a great technique to help analyse what is happening in these systems, since neutrons are extremely sensitive to lithium, and also able to penetrate large amounts of sample environment, allowing in operando experiments. However, the properties which make a good reflectivity experiment are quite different to the properties of a good battery. Instead of compromising, I made what is possibly the “world’s worst battery”^TM.

In this talk I give a brief overview of the ESTIA instrument at the ESS, then present neutron reflectivity results from my battery. I then go on to review my process and work out how it would be possible to do the same things better.