SINGLE-CRYSTAL X-RAY DIFFRACTION STUDIES ON ELECTROCHEMICALLY LITHIATED V₆O₁₃. O. Bergstrom, T. Gustafsson and J.O. Thomas, Inst. of Chem.,Uppsala Univ., Box 531, S-751 21 Uppsala, Sweden

Much of today's battery technology research is driven by the need for new battery concepts for electric vehicle and portable electronics applications. The lithium-polymer battery (LPB) satisfies many of the requirements we can have of a modern battery, not least environmental acceptability. It contains a transition-metal oxide (TMO) as active electrochemical component.

In our efforts to understand lithium intercalation mechanisms in TMO:s, we have earlier made in situ transmission XRD studies through an entire cell under electrochemical cycling [1]. A problem here has been to observe and distinguish the subtle structural effects of lithiation of the TMO particles from other cell-design features.

In this present work, we avoid this complication by constructing a LPB incorporating some single-crystals of V₆O₁₃. Resulting single-crystal XRD data indicates that previous published results from powder diffraction of lithiated V₆O₁₃ must be re-evaluated.

This work has been supported earlier by ONR(USA), and currently by the EEC(Joule 11), The Swedish Natural Science Research Council (NFR), and The Swedish Board for Technical Development (NUTEK).

References: [1] T. Gustafsson, J. O. Thomas, R. Koksbang and G. C. Farrington. Electrochimica Acta, 37, 1639 (1992).