For reference

List of figures

Every figure of the course, with the first sentence of its caption. Figures inside folded panels are listed under the figure before them.

Chapter 0 · Electrostatics

1. 0.1Coulomb’s law
2. 0.2Field and potential around a single charge
3. 0.3Voltage as a potential hill
4. 0.4Why a current needs a voltage
5. 0.5How an ion moves through a liquid

Chapter 1 · Galvanic cells

1. 1.1The Daniell cell, the textbook battery
2. 1.2Two roads for charge, joined at the boundary
3. 1.3Cells and batteries
4. 1.4Is it a battery?
5. 1.5From Volta’s pile to the lithium-ion cell
6. 1.6A family tree of batteries

Chapter 2 · Cell anatomy

1. 2.1A coin cell, the kind used to test new materials in research laboratories, cut through the…
2. 2.2Why cells are built from thin, wide layers, and how the layers fit in a can
3. 2.3Four formats, and how their names are read
4. 2.4An electrode is a coating, not a block
5. 2.5What each layer can be made of
6. 2.6The rocking chair: graphite against LiCoO2, today’s form of the carbon | LiCoO2 cell that…
7. 2.7From a chemist’s curiosity to a product, and on to today’s cell

Chapter 3 · Cell voltage

1. 3.1Different chemistries, different voltages
2. 3.2Potential as electron energy
3. 3.3Inside one jump: the electrical double layer
4. 3.4The potential ladder
5. 3.5The same gap as a picture of electron energy
6. 3.6Why oxide hosts give 4 V and sulfide hosts about 2.5 V
7. 3.7The same gap in the language of thermodynamics

Chapter 4 · Capacity and energy

1. 4.1The Faraday calculator
2. 4.2Energy is the area under the discharge curve
3. 4.3State of charge, depth of discharge and the C-rate
4. 4.4Power, and what the internal resistance costs
5. 4.5The Ragone map: energy against power
6. 4.6Three efficiencies, drawn as areas
7. 4.7Why lithium-ion won, and what it costs

Chapter 5 · Polarization

1. 5.1One full test of your cell, as a cycler runs it
2. 5.2Where the voltage goes when current flows
3. 5.3The voltage curve, computed, with the polarization drawn on the plot
4. 5.4Switch the current off and the three polarizations leave on three different clocks
5. 5.5Where the heat comes from, through one cycle of your cell

Chapter 6 · Voltage profiles

1. 6.1Two ways to store charge, and the curves they draw
2. 6.2Plateau or slope: the Gibbs phase rule on a measured curve
3. 6.3One electrode, many particles: why the plateau tilts with rate, and why the electrode remembers…

Chapter 7 · Insertion hosts

1. 7.1The two hosts, atom by atom: graphite fills by stages; LiCoO₂ gives up half its lithium
2. 7.2Three hosts, three kinds of path for the ion
3. 7.3Three ways to store lithium

Chapter 8 · Liquid electrolytes

1. 8.1The cast: two solvents, one anion, one lithium ion
2. 8.2What the liquid is made of, counted molecule by molecule
3. 8.3The ingredients of commercial electrolytes, side by side
4. 8.4Dissolving the salt: the solvent takes the lithium ions one by one
5. 8.5One lithium ion and its shell, in three dimensions

Chapter 9 · Ion transport

1. 9.1How an ion moves: a random walk, gently steered
2. 9.2The transference number, and the salt gradient it leaves behind
3. 9.3Layer by layer, from the middle of the liquid to the electrode

Chapter 10 · The SEI

1. 10.1The first charge, and the layer that costs lithium mostly once and then protects
2. 10.2Graphite’s skin: the SEI, and the ways a graphite electrode ages

Chapter 11 · Composite electrodes

1. 11.1Two roads to every particle: electrons through the carbon, ions through the pores
2. 11.2Where does the current go inside an electrode?
3. 11.3A poor conductor needs carbon
4. 11.4The nanoparticle trade-off: faster particles, emptier litres
5. 11.5Porosity and tortuosity: how much room the ions have, and how far round they must go
6. 11.6Inside a porous electrode: why fast discharges stop early
7. 11.7From powder to cell in eight steps

Chapter 12 · Negative electrodes

1. 12.1The map of negative electrodes, and what extra capacity really buys
2. 12.2Fast charging: how close can the negative electrode come to 0 V?
3. 12.3Silicon breathes, and its SEI pays for it
4. 12.4Conversion: high capacity, paid for with a volt of hysteresis
5. 12.5Lithium metal: dendrites and dead lithium
6. 12.6How many cycles?
7. 12.7Making anode-free cells work: three places to intervene

Chapter 13 · Positive electrodes

1. 13.1Positive electrodes side by side, and what nickel buys

Chapter 14 · Solid-state cells

1. 14.1Three ways to carry a lithium ion
2. 14.2Conductivity against temperature: the gaps follow the cited ratios, the heights are schematic
3. 14.3Why solid electrolytes are hard: four requirements, and a contact that has to survive breathing
4. 14.4Solid-state cells: the trouble is where the lithium meets the ceramic

Chapter 15 · Sodium and organic

1. 15.1Sodium is bigger
2. 15.2Four candidate charge carriers, compared as metals
3. 15.3Organic electrodes: how they store charge, and how high their voltage now goes

Chapter 16 · Degradation

1. 16.1Capacity fade, taken apart into three thieves
2. 16.2Why 99.9 % per cycle is not good enough
3. 16.3The SEI keeps growing, and the exponent tells you why
4. 16.4Manganese on the move: one electrode’s loss becomes the other’s problem
5. 16.5On the shelf: self-discharge differs by orders of magnitude between chemistries

Chapter 17 · Safety

1. 17.1The runaway loop: heat that makes more heat
2. 17.2The order in which a hot cell starts to burn
3. 17.3Layers of protection, and which one answers which kind of abuse
4. 17.4How cells are tested before they are sold
5. 17.5The comfort zone

Chapter 18 · Recycling

1. 18.1The recycling routes: three ways back into a new cell

Lab 1 · Cell testing

1. L1.1One cell, six measurements: what each one imposes, what it measures, and the question it answers
2. L1.2A coin cell, part by part, in the order it is stacked
3. L1.3From a punched disc to the current to type into the cycler
4. L1.4Before the first cycle: the open-circuit voltage, the crimp, the cleaning
5. L1.5One cycle: constant current, constant voltage, rest, discharge
6. L1.6Coulombic efficiency compounds
7. L1.7Rate and temperature, and the recovery step that tells loss from polarization
8. L1.8Reading a curve by its slopes, and what ageing does to them

Lab 2 · Cyclic voltammetry

1. L2.1The experiment: three electrodes and a triangular sweep
2. L2.2The duck, step by step: the current and the concentration profiles behind it
3. L2.3Scan rate: the Randles-Sevcik equation, and the capacitive background
4. L2.4Everything that can be read off one voltammogram, and the baselines the readings need
5. L2.5How fast is the electron?
6. L2.6Uncompensated resistance makes a fast couple look slow
7. L2.7De-polarization: the peak potentials against the peak currents give the resistance, and E − iR…
8. L2.8Diffusion or surface?
9. L2.9Three mechanisms, three powers of the scan rate
10. L2.10A battery electrode under a slow sweep
11. L2.11Diffusion coefficients from CV, and from the other methods
12. L2.12A mechanical artefact: stress in the lattice shifts the peak and inflates the apparent…
13. L2.13The stability window of an electrolyte, and why its edge is a choice

Lab 3 · GITT

1. L3.1The resistance of a cell depends on when you read it
2. L3.2GITT: one pulse, one rest, two voltage changes
3. L3.3When is a GITT pulse short enough?
4. L3.4Six recipes, one pulse, different answers
5. L3.5Read the rest, not the pulse
6. L3.6A whole GITT run: three results from one experiment

Lab 4 · EIS: measurement

1. L4.1Impedance: a sine in, a sine out, compared in size and timing
2. L4.2One spectrum, two pictures
3. L4.3A commercial cell’s spectrum, read from left to right
4. L4.4The shapes real cells draw, and the physics behind each
5. L4.5How small is small enough?
6. L4.6For a cell of milliohms, how it is connected changes the answer
7. L4.7Is the spectrum valid?

Lab 5 · EIS: analysis

1. L5.1Two circuits, one spectrum: a perfect fit proves nothing about the circuit
2. L5.2Reading an arc: diameter, apex frequency, time constant; and when two arcs resolve
3. L5.3How many elements?
4. L5.4Temperature tells the arcs apart: charge transfer follows an Arrhenius law
5. L5.5The distribution of relaxation times: overlapping arcs become separate peaks, if the…
6. L5.6Following a cell as it ages, and the data-driven route

Lab 6 · Post-mortem

1. L6.1What each technique sees, and what it costs the cell
2. L6.2The post-mortem, in order: outside first, then discharged, in argon, mapped, and only then…
3. L6.3Where the capacity went: harvested discs of one cell, cycled again, by position
4. L6.4The peel test: how hard the coating still holds
5. L6.5What the coin cell can and cannot see
6. L6.6Where the lithium went: FePO₄ left in discharged positive electrodes, by position
7. L6.7Finding plated lithium: three techniques, three kinds of evidence