Four Awards for MEET Research Division Analytics & Environment

MEET research division Analytics & Environment received four awards in June. For his posters “Novel State of Charge Studies by Means of Depth-Resolved Isotope Dilution Analysis in The Field of Lithium Ion Batteries” and “Assessing Lithium Migration in Lithium Ion Batteries at Different States of Charge by Combining Isotope Dilution Analysis with Plasma-Based Techniques”, MEET PhD student Stephen Dorn was awarded with a poster prize each. The awards of the publisher Wiley for the “Top Cited & Top Downloaded Article” were given to Dr Lenard Hanf for his publication “Mn²⁺ or Mn³⁺? Investigating Transition Metal Dissolution of Manganese Species in Lithium Ion Battery Electrolytes by Capillary Electrophoresis”.

Poster Prizes for the Analysis of Lithium Migration during Formation

The posters of Stephen Dorn focus on lithium migration during the first formation cycle. For the identification of the lithium fractions in the electrolyte and the cathode, the cathode material was isotopically labelled. The subsequent analysis of the electrodes using a glow discharge mass spectrometer provided both depth-resolved information about the lithium distribution in the anode and cathode as well as insights into the loss of active lithium due to the formation of the solid electrolyte interphase (SEI). It could be shown that at the beginning of the formation the SEI contains mainly electrolytic lithium, but later the ratio to cathodic lithium is equalised. Co-authors of both posters are Marcel Diehl, Prof. Dr Martin Winter, Dr Sascha Nowak and Dr Simon Wiemers-Meyer, MEET Battery Research Center of the University of Münster.

Dorn was awarded the prizes at two international conferences: the “5^th International Glow Discharge Spectroscopy Symposium” in Oviedo, Spain, sponsored by the journal “Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry” and at the “10^th Nordic Conference on Plasma Spectrochemistry” in Loen, Norway, sponsored by the “Norwegian Chemical Society”.

Newly Developed Method for the Analysis of Transition Metals

The work of Dr Lenard Hanf focuses on a new method for capillary electrophoresis that enables the investigation of the oxidation states of dissolved manganese in the electrolyte of lithium ion batteries (LIB). Dissolved transition metals, especially manganese, can disrupt the functionality of the SEI, causing increased electrolyte decomposition and consequently a greater loss of capacity and shorter operating life of the LIB. Understanding the dissolution mechanisms of the cathode in detail is therefore important. The oxidation state of the transition metals can provide important information on when and how the metals dissolve from the cathode. Using the newly developed method, the oxidation state of dissolved manganese, both Mn²⁺ and Mn³⁺, can now be quantitatively studied for the first time. Hanf and his co-authors Dr Jonas Henschel, Marcel Diehl, Prof. Dr Martin Winter and Dr Sascha Nowak, MEET Battery Research Center, have published the complete study in the journal “Electrophoresis”.