Simulation of the diffusional impedance and application to the characterization of electrodes with complex microstructures

Hui Chia Yu; Stuart B. Adler; Scott A. Barnett; K. Thornton

doi:10.1016/j.electacta.2020.136534

Simulation of the diffusional impedance and application to the characterization of electrodes with complex microstructures

Hui Chia Yu^*, Stuart B. Adler, Scott A. Barnett, K. Thornton^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Materials Science and Engineering

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

23 Scopus citations

Abstract

Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) has been widely employed to probe material properties in energy materials. One important aspect of EIS is the diffusional impedance. To date, the diffusional impedance behavior is understood based on the analytical solutions of the one-dimensional (1D) diffusion equation. However, transport in materials is strongly influenced by the materials’ three-dimensional (3D) microstructures that often possess complex geometries that are unlike the simplified 1D domains. In this work, we simulate the concentration response driven by oscillating loads by solving the diffusion equation in complex, experimentally determined 3D microstructures obtained from solid oxide fuel cell cathode and lithium-ion battery cathode. The simulation results demonstrate that the diffusional impedance can serve as a new technique for the evaluation of microstructural characteristics of porous media, including the tortuosity, the porosity, and the area of the loading boundary. Our findings open a new array of applications for diffusional impedance measurements.

Original language	English (US)
Article number	136534
Journal	Electrochimica Acta
Volume	354
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.electacta.2020.136534
State	Published - Sep 10 2020

Funding

Authors thank J. Scott Cronin for his assistance with the use of the 3D microstructural data. This work is support by the United States National Science Foundation , Division of Material Research, Ceramics Program, under the grant numbers DMR-1912530 (SB), DMR-1912151 (KT) and DMR-1506055 (KT). Computational resources were provided by the Extreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment (XSEDE [ 52 ]) (allocation No. TG-DMR110007), which is supported by the United States National Science Foundation under grant number ACI-1053575 , by the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC), a DOE Office of Science User Facility supported by the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy under Contract No. DE-AC02-05CH11231, and also by the University of Michigan Advanced Research Computing.

Keywords

Electrode microstructure
Impedance spectroscopy
Smoothed boundary method
Three-dimensional simulations
Tortuosity

ASJC Scopus subject areas

General Chemical Engineering
Electrochemistry

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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10.1016/j.electacta.2020.136534

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@article{d0d1d52553c9493c86153bebde5551d3,

title = "Simulation of the diffusional impedance and application to the characterization of electrodes with complex microstructures",

abstract = "Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) has been widely employed to probe material properties in energy materials. One important aspect of EIS is the diffusional impedance. To date, the diffusional impedance behavior is understood based on the analytical solutions of the one-dimensional (1D) diffusion equation. However, transport in materials is strongly influenced by the materials{\textquoteright} three-dimensional (3D) microstructures that often possess complex geometries that are unlike the simplified 1D domains. In this work, we simulate the concentration response driven by oscillating loads by solving the diffusion equation in complex, experimentally determined 3D microstructures obtained from solid oxide fuel cell cathode and lithium-ion battery cathode. The simulation results demonstrate that the diffusional impedance can serve as a new technique for the evaluation of microstructural characteristics of porous media, including the tortuosity, the porosity, and the area of the loading boundary. Our findings open a new array of applications for diffusional impedance measurements.",

keywords = "Electrode microstructure, Impedance spectroscopy, Smoothed boundary method, Three-dimensional simulations, Tortuosity",

author = "Yu, {Hui Chia} and Adler, {Stuart B.} and Barnett, {Scott A.} and K. Thornton",

note = "Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2020 Elsevier Ltd",

year = "2020",

month = sep,

day = "10",

doi = "10.1016/j.electacta.2020.136534",

language = "English (US)",

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journal = "Electrochimica Acta",

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T1 - Simulation of the diffusional impedance and application to the characterization of electrodes with complex microstructures

AU - Yu, Hui Chia

AU - Adler, Stuart B.

AU - Barnett, Scott A.

AU - Thornton, K.

PY - 2020/9/10

Y1 - 2020/9/10

N2 - Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) has been widely employed to probe material properties in energy materials. One important aspect of EIS is the diffusional impedance. To date, the diffusional impedance behavior is understood based on the analytical solutions of the one-dimensional (1D) diffusion equation. However, transport in materials is strongly influenced by the materials’ three-dimensional (3D) microstructures that often possess complex geometries that are unlike the simplified 1D domains. In this work, we simulate the concentration response driven by oscillating loads by solving the diffusion equation in complex, experimentally determined 3D microstructures obtained from solid oxide fuel cell cathode and lithium-ion battery cathode. The simulation results demonstrate that the diffusional impedance can serve as a new technique for the evaluation of microstructural characteristics of porous media, including the tortuosity, the porosity, and the area of the loading boundary. Our findings open a new array of applications for diffusional impedance measurements.

AB - Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) has been widely employed to probe material properties in energy materials. One important aspect of EIS is the diffusional impedance. To date, the diffusional impedance behavior is understood based on the analytical solutions of the one-dimensional (1D) diffusion equation. However, transport in materials is strongly influenced by the materials’ three-dimensional (3D) microstructures that often possess complex geometries that are unlike the simplified 1D domains. In this work, we simulate the concentration response driven by oscillating loads by solving the diffusion equation in complex, experimentally determined 3D microstructures obtained from solid oxide fuel cell cathode and lithium-ion battery cathode. The simulation results demonstrate that the diffusional impedance can serve as a new technique for the evaluation of microstructural characteristics of porous media, including the tortuosity, the porosity, and the area of the loading boundary. Our findings open a new array of applications for diffusional impedance measurements.

KW - Electrode microstructure

KW - Impedance spectroscopy

KW - Smoothed boundary method

KW - Three-dimensional simulations

KW - Tortuosity

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JO - Electrochimica Acta

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Simulation of the diffusional impedance and application to the characterization of electrodes with complex microstructures

Abstract

Funding

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

UN SDGs

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