Unraveling Chemical Origins of Dendrite Formation in Zinc-Ion Batteries via In Situ/Operando X-Ray Spectroscopy and Imaging

In-situ scanning transmission X-ray microscopy (STXM) and spectro-ptychography are used to observe Zn dendrites and their chemical composition and distribution on the Zn surface during the stripping/plating progress are revealed.

Pourbaix Machine Learning Framework Identifies Acidic Water Oxidation Catalysts Exhibiting Suppressed Ruthenium Dissolution

A machine-learning-assisted computational pipeline is developed, and the Pourbaix energy for 2070 new oxides is screened to assess their electrochemical stability under acidic oxygen evolution reaction.

Superionic Conducting Vacancy-Rich Β-Li3n Electrolyte for Stable Cycling of All-Solid-State Lithium Metal Batteries

A superionic conducting, highly lithium-compatible, and air-stable vacancy-rich β-Li3N solid-state electrolyte is reported. It exhibited a high ionic conductivity, exceeding almost all the reported nitride-based solid-state electrolytes.

Nominally Identical Microplastic Models Differ Greatly in Their Particle-Cell Interactions

The nominally identical polystyrene microspheres from eight different manufacturers were significantly different in their ζ-potential, thus leading to different particle-cell interactions.

Single-Phase Local-High-Concentration Solid Polymer Electrolytes for Lithium-Metal Batteries

A class of locally high-concentration solid polymer electrolytes based on polymer blends is designed and the assembled cells can achieve a cycle life of 450 cycles.

A Novel Electrolyte for Long-Life Li Batteries

The cell assembled with this composite polymer electrolyte shows a prolonged cycle life of 1000 cycles at 1C.  


The spectromicroscopy (SM) facility at CLS has one beam line (10ID-1), enabling users to perform studies in the fields of polymer science, environmental science, and biological applications to novel material design and magnetic imaging. 

 

CLS-SM consists of an Apple II Elliptically Polarizing Undulator (EPU), a plane grating  monochromator (PGM), two branch lines, and two microscopes:

  •          Scanning Transmission X-ray Microscope (STXM)
  •          X-ray Photoemission Electron Microscope (X-PEEM)

 


List of Publications »

  • Sun, Tianxiao; Wu, Bin; Deng, Shimao; Guo, Yu-Jie; Shi, Ji-Lei et al. (2025). Pinpointing Chemomechanical Origins of Na Cathode Degradation. Journal of the American Chemical Society 147(25) , 21375-21384. 10.1021/jacs.4c14571.
  • Castle, Rielly; Appathurai, Narayan; Simonson, Nicholas; Sigari, Yasaman; Boland, Mark J. et al. (2025). Investigating the limits of hard X-ray coherence length measurement employing Young’s double slit experiment. Scientific Reports 15(1) . 10.1038/s41598-025-03295-y.
  • Wang, Yuting; Jiang, Wei; Zhu, Keran; Yuan, Huasheng; Luo, Zhenlin et al. (2025). Rubber–Filler Interactions in Carbon Black-Filled Rubber Composites Studied by Scanning Transmission X-ray Microscopy. Journal of Physical Chemistry B 129(20) , 5047-5053. 10.1021/acs.jpcb.5c00494.