Capillary-based micro-battery cell for in situ X-ray powder diffraction studies of working batteries: a study of the initial intercalation and deintercalation of lithium into graphite

J. Appl. Cryst. (2013). 46, 1537–1543 (http://doi.org/qdg )

Sketch of the capillary-based micro-battery cell designed for in situ studies in transmission mode.

This paper reports the design of a novel capillary-based micro-battery cell for in situ X-ray powder diffraction studies of working batteries. The in situ cell makes it possible to obtain X-ray diffraction from a single electrode at a time, which facilitates detailed structural and microstructural studies of all types of crystalline electrode materials. The micro-battery cell was used to study the initial intercalation of lithium into graphite in a working Li–C battery. DIFFaX+ was used to refine the stacking order/disorder in the graphitic phases.