In this article featured as Frontispiece in Advanced Energy Materials, we undertake for the first time a mechanistic evaluation of the light-induced ion intercalation process that occurs in solar-rechargeable ion intercalation batteries. The solar-rechargeable ion intercalation battery we developed utilizes light to intercalate Na+ ions from the electrolyte into the electrode. The resulting sodium electrode is stable where the stored electrons and ions can be discharged to output energy for utilization on demand. It is also for the first time that we established an in-operando synchrotron X-ray diffraction (XRD) methodology that allows for real-time visualization of the structural evolution process within the solar battery host electrode with which direct correlations between the structural evolution of the host electrode and the photo-electrochemical responses of the solar batteries can be derived. The information collected can aid the development of more advanced photo-electrodes and solar batteries with greater performances. The mechanistic-operando insights obtained from our structural evolution study of solar-rechargeable ion intercalation batteries and our unique in operando synchrotron XRD methodology represent an unprecedented development in the fields of electrochemistry, photochemistry, structural chemistry and energy materials technology.
Read more: Advanced Energy Materials (2017) 7:19 (doi:10.1002/aenm.201700545)
A solar-chargeable intercalation battery and an operando synchrotron X-ray diffraction technique