Lasertec Announces the ECCS B310 New Confocal System for Visualizing Electrochemical Reactions

Description

Based on Lasertec's core technology, True Color Confocal Optics, the ECCS B310 visualizes the distribution of electrochemical reactions in the electrolyte of a charged or discharged LIB through a window on the observation unit designed for in-situ observation. The ECCS B310 can provide variable speed motion images for easy observation and analysis.

Today, LIBs are widely used in compact packages for smartphones, cell phones, tablets and laptops. As their use is expanding into more diverse applications, including medium to large batteries for electric vehicles and load balancing, LIBs are expected to become more energy efficient, with higher energy density and shorter charging times, while meeting higher safety standards. The performance of LIBs depends on many factors, including the active material composition of the positive electrode, negative electrode and electrolyte, which can be selected from more than 1000 different materials, as well as the choice of active material conductive agents and their dosage. However, the evaluation methods generally available so far can only measure the performance of LIBs based on charging and discharging curves, and cannot visualize the electrochemical reactions inside a sealed LIB.

The ECCS B310 provides high-definition color motion images for surface or cross-sectional observation of electrodes in charged or discharged LIBs. Thanks to this capability, the ECCS B310 can be used to observe the distribution of electrochemical reactions on the electrode or throughout the depth of the LIB, to measure the expansion and contraction of active materials, and to analyze dendrite formation mechanisms. As a result, the ECCS B310 is an effective tool for evaluating LIB performance in a variety of R&D efforts, material performance improvement, and quality assurance.

Main features

• True color confocal optics optimized for in-situ LIB viewing provide high-definition motion images with good color separation, independent of glass surfaces or electrolytes
• Real-time viewing at industry-leading image capture rates
• 3D measurement of dendrites
• System customization to ensure maximum performance for each customer application

Applications

• Visualization of lithium ion embedding
• Measurement of expansion and contraction of reactive materials
• Electrode thickness measurement
• Analysis of dendrite formation mechanism

<Response distribution on the graphite anode surface observed with ECCS B310

In this example, the graphite anode is observed using ECCS B310 while the LIB is being charged. The charging goes through several stages and reaches stage 1, where the lithium ions are embedded between all layers. In the first stage, the color of the active material on the electrode is golden. By observing how the active material changes from gray to blue, red and finally to gold, you can analyze the properties of the LIB.