Montse Casas-Cabanas is an Ikerbasque research associate and the scientific coordinator of the Electrochemical Energy Storage Area at CIC energiGUNE.
Her research interests focus on the design of next generation battery chemistries and the understanding of phenomena that occur in energy storage devices through a multidisciplinary approach, with a focus in crystal chemistry. She employs cost-efficient synthetic processes, with a focus on sustainability and recyclability, in combination with scattering, imaging, and spectroscopic techniques to develop fundamental understanding in structure-property correlations. She is recognized in the field for her contributions to the study of electrode reaction mechanisms using operando experiments and, more specifically, in the study of the impact of structural disorder and defects in the electrochemical performance, for which she pioneered the development of the FAULTS software, which is being increasingly used by the materials community.
She is actively involved in the MESC+ (Materials for Energy Storage and Conversion) Erasmus Mundus master course, the Alistore-ERI network of excellence and Battery 2030+ initiative. She was elected in 2021 Technical Advisor of the Batteries European Partnership Association (BEPA) Working Group 1 “Advanced Materials and Manufacturing” and is now Technical Leader of the “New Emerging Technologies” group in the Batteries Europe (BE) technology and innovation platform.
She has been recently awarded with the 2021 Young Researcher award from the Spanish Royal Society of Chemistry.
Abstract:
Advancing Battery Materials through Operando and High Throughput X-ray Diffraction techniques
D. Saurel, M. Reynaud, O. Arcelus, J. Rodríguez-Carvajal, N.A. Katcho, F. Fauth, J. Serrano-Sevillano, M. Jáuregui, M. Galceran, M. Casas-Cabanas*
* Presenting or corresponding author: mcasas@cicenergigune.com
Operando X-ray diffraction experiments have gained widespread popularity as a potent tool for monitoring internal processes during battery cycling, offering valuable insights into fundamental electrochemical redox mechanisms and aging phenomena in battery materials. However, the acquisition of high-quality, representative, and actionable data from operando measurements necessitates meticulous control of various experimental parameters. This includes aspects such as cell configuration, electrode preparation, goniometer geometry, data acquisition protocols, and data interpretation methodology.
In this presentation, we aim to discuss some critical aspects essential for effective data acquisition and utilization, such as cell design, experimental setup, sample and experiment preparation, on the success of operando experiments.1 This will be illustrated through several case studies to showcase the effectiveness of operando experiments in unraveling the electrochemical signatures of various battery materials.
On the other hand, the huge amount of diffraction data generated by high-throughput screening experiments as well as by operando studies at large user facilities calls for new software tools able to radically accelerate the analysis and process data in real time, instead of the traditional post-experiment pattern-to-pattern analysis. The FullProfAPP software, built on the grounds of the current version of the FullProf program, and designed to process, refine and visualize large collections of powder diffraction patterns will be introduced.2,3
Figure 1. Images of the electrochemical cell placed in (a) Lab-scale PXRD Bragg-Brentano diffractometer, (b) in a three-cell motored stage for transmission mode HRPXRD at ALBA synchrotron’s MSPD beamline, and (c) mounted in the flange ready to be introduced in the XAS chamber of the ALBA synchrotron’s CLAESS beamline.1
References
- D. Saurel, A. Pendashteh, M. Jáuregui, M. Reynaud, M. Fehse, M. Galceran, M. Casas-Cabanas, Chem. Methods 2021, 1(6), 249-260.
- O. Arcelus, J. Rodríguez-Carvajal, N.A. Katcho, M. Reynaud, A.P. Black, D. Chatzogiannakis, C. Frontera, J. Serrano-Sevillano, M. Ismail, J. Carrasco, F. Fauth, M.R. Palacin, M. Casas-Cabanas, submitted.
- https://cicenergigune.com/en/fullprof-app
