thin film ruo 2 lithiation: fast lithium‐ion diffusion...

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FULL PAPER www.afm-journal.de © 2018 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim 1805723 (1 of 8) Thin Film RuO 2 Lithiation: Fast Lithium-Ion Diffusion along the Interface Sungkyu Kim, Guennadi Evmenenko, Yaobin Xu, Donald Bruce Buchholz, Michael Bedzyk, Kai He, Jinsong Wu,* and Vinayak P. Dravid* Although lithium-ion batteries that run on the conversion reaction have high capacity, their cyclability remains problematic due to large volume changes and material pulverization. Dimensional confinement, such as 2D thin film or nanodots in a conductive matrix, is proposed as a way of improving the cyclic stability, but the lithiation mechanism of such dimensionally controlled materials remains largely unknown. Here, by in situ transmission electron microscopy, lithiation of thin RuO 2 films with different thicknesses and directions of lithium-ion diffusion are observed at atomic resolution to monitor the reactions. From the side-wall diffusion in 4 nm RuO 2 film, the ion-diffusion and reaction are fast, called “interface-dominant” mode. In contrast, in 12 nm film, the ion diffusion–reaction only occurs at the interface where there is a high density of defects due to misfits between the film and substrate, called the “interface-to-film” mode. Compared to the side-wall diffusion, the reaction along the normal direction of the thin film are found to be sluggish (“layer-to-layer” mode). Once lithiation speed is higher, the volume expansion is larger and the intercalation stage becomes shorter. Such observation of preferential lithiation direction in 2D-like RuO 2 thin film provides useful insights to develop dimensionally confined electrodes for lithium-ion batteries. DOI: 10.1002/adfm.201805723 Dr. S. Kim, Dr. G. Evmenenko, Dr. Y. Xu, Dr. D. B. Buchholz, Prof. M. Bedzyk, Prof. K. He, Prof. J. Wu, Prof. V. P. Dravid Department of Materials Science and Engineering Northwestern University Evanston, IL 60208, USA E-mail: [email protected]; [email protected] Dr. S. Kim, Dr. Y. Xu, Prof. K. He, Prof. J. Wu, Prof. V. P. Dravid NUANCE Center Northwestern University Evanston, IL 60208, USA Dr. S. Kim, Prof. K. He Department of Materials Science and Engineering Clemson University Clemson, SC 29634, USA Prof. J. Wu State Key Laboratory of Advanced Technology for Materials Synthesis and Processing Nanostructure Research Centre Wuhan University of Technology Wuhan 430070, China The ORCID identification number(s) for the author(s) of this article can be found under https://doi.org/10.1002/adfm.201805723. 1. Introduction Lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) are spreading in the secondary rechargeable battery market in devices from portable elec- tronics to large-scale electric vehicles and power tools that require large capacity, fast charge/discharge, and high stability. [1–4] The commercialized electrode materials for these batteries are mainly run on the intercalation mechanism, e.g., graphite with an interlayer spacing of 0.34 nm as anode of LIBs with stable and reversible cyclability. [5–7] In particular, Li 4 Ti 5 O 12 has been reported to have excellent operating stabilities due to its zero-strain charac- teristic during electrochemical reactions and high potential above 1.5 V versus Li. [8,9] However, these commercialized anode materials based solely on interca- lation reaction have limitations in their large-scale device applications, due to the theoretical capacity limit (graphite: 372 mAh g 1 , Li 4 Ti 5 O 12 : 175 mAh g 1 ). There have been many research efforts to develop electrodes with various structure and compositions for LIBs with high capacity and cyclability. [10–14] Among them, development of an electrode based on the con- version reaction is promising, as the capacity of a conversion reac- tion electrode is normally much higher than that based solely on an intercalation reaction. However, unlike the intercalation reac- tion, the structure framework of the host material collapses in a conversion reaction, causing not only large volume change but also phase transformation and separation. There are thus many problems in a conversion reaction–based electrode, such as large overpotential, sluggish kinetics, and large volume change. Each of these will lead to a low cyclic stability. Dimensional confine- ments such as 2D thin film or quantum dots within a conductive matrix have been proposed as a way of improving the cyclic sta- bility of the conversion reaction electrodes. [15–17] This approach could enable conversion-based materials to serve as practical electrodes for LIBs. In a dimensionally confined and low- dimensional material, it is expected that reaction products can be accommodated to maintain contact with an electric collector, where the volume change hopefully can be suppressed and the new phase nucleation and growth ideally can be controlled. [18–20] The actual mechanism of lithiation in such a dimensional confined electrode, however, remains largely unknown. Lithium-Ion Batteries Adv. Funct. Mater. 2018, 1805723

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Page 1: Thin Film RuO 2 Lithiation: Fast Lithium‐Ion Diffusion ...bedzyk.mccormick.northwestern.edu/files/publications/258_Kim_et_a… · Thin Film RuO 2 Lithiation: Fast Lithium-Ion Diffusion

FULL PAPERwww.afm-journal.de

© 2018 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim1805723 (1 of 8)

Thin Film RuO2 Lithiation: Fast Lithium-Ion Diffusion along the Interface

Sungkyu Kim, Guennadi Evmenenko, Yaobin Xu, Donald Bruce Buchholz, Michael Bedzyk, Kai He, Jinsong Wu,* and Vinayak P. Dravid*

Although lithium-ion batteries that run on the conversion reaction have high capacity, their cyclability remains problematic due to large volume changes and material pulverization. Dimensional confinement, such as 2D thin film or nanodots in a conductive matrix, is proposed as a way of improving the cyclic stability, but the lithiation mechanism of such dimensionally controlled materials remains largely unknown. Here, by in situ transmission electron microscopy, lithiation of thin RuO2 films with different thicknesses and directions of lithium-ion diffusion are observed at atomic resolution to monitor the reactions. From the side-wall diffusion in ≈4 nm RuO2 film, the ion-diffusion and reaction are fast, called “interface-dominant” mode. In contrast, in ≈12 nm film, the ion diffusion–reaction only occurs at the interface where there is a high density of defects due to misfits between the film and substrate, called the “interface-to-film” mode. Compared to the side-wall diffusion, the reaction along the normal direction of the thin film are found to be sluggish (“layer-to-layer” mode). Once lithiation speed is higher, the volume expansion is larger and the intercalation stage becomes shorter. Such observation of preferential lithiation direction in 2D-like RuO2 thin film provides useful insights to develop dimensionally confined electrodes for lithium-ion batteries.

DOI: 10.1002/adfm.201805723

Dr. S. Kim, Dr. G. Evmenenko, Dr. Y. Xu, Dr. D. B. Buchholz, Prof. M. Bedzyk, Prof. K. He, Prof. J. Wu, Prof. V. P. DravidDepartment of Materials Science and EngineeringNorthwestern UniversityEvanston, IL 60208, USAE-mail: [email protected]; [email protected]. S. Kim, Dr. Y. Xu, Prof. K. He, Prof. J. Wu, Prof. V. P. DravidNUANCE CenterNorthwestern UniversityEvanston, IL 60208, USADr. S. Kim, Prof. K. HeDepartment of Materials Science and EngineeringClemson UniversityClemson, SC 29634, USAProf. J. WuState Key Laboratory of Advanced Technology for Materials Synthesis and ProcessingNanostructure Research CentreWuhan University of TechnologyWuhan 430070, China

The ORCID identification number(s) for the author(s) of this article can be found under https://doi.org/10.1002/adfm.201805723.

1. Introduction

Lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) are spreading in the secondary rechargeable battery market in devices from portable elec-tronics to large-scale electric vehicles and power tools that require large capacity, fast charge/discharge, and high stability.[1–4] The commercialized electrode materials for these batteries are mainly run on the intercalation mechanism, e.g., graphite with an interlayer spacing of 0.34 nm as anode of LIBs with stable and reversible cyclability.[5–7] In particular, Li4Ti5O12 has been reported to have excellent operating stabilities due to its zero-strain charac-teristic during electrochemical reactions and high potential above 1.5 V versus Li.[8,9] However, these commercialized anode materials based solely on interca-lation reaction have limitations in their large-scale device applications, due to the theoretical capacity limit (graphite: 372 mAh g −1, Li4Ti5O12: 175 mAh g −1). There have been many research efforts to

develop electrodes with various structure and compositions for LIBs with high capacity and cyclability.[10–14]

Among them, development of an electrode based on the con-version reaction is promising, as the capacity of a conversion reac-tion electrode is normally much higher than that based solely on an intercalation reaction. However, unlike the intercalation reac-tion, the structure framework of the host material collapses in a conversion reaction, causing not only large volume change but also phase transformation and separation. There are thus many problems in a conversion reaction–based electrode, such as large overpotential, sluggish kinetics, and large volume change. Each of these will lead to a low cyclic stability. Dimensional confine-ments such as 2D thin film or quantum dots within a conductive matrix have been proposed as a way of improving the cyclic sta-bility of the conversion reaction electrodes.[15–17] This approach could enable conversion-based materials to serve as practical electrodes for LIBs. In a dimensionally confined and low-dimensional material, it is expected that reaction products can be accommodated to maintain contact with an electric collector, where the volume change hopefully can be suppressed and the new phase nucleation and growth ideally can be controlled.[18–20] The actual mechanism of lithiation in such a dimensional confined electrode, however, remains largely unknown.

Lithium-Ion Batteries

Adv. Funct. Mater. 2018, 1805723

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The transition metal oxide, RuO2, is one of the anode mate-rials for full-cell LIBs based on a conversion reaction with a high theoretical capacity, metallic conductivity, high chemical/thermal stability, and electrochemical redox properties. As reported, RuO2 is an ideal material for theoretical study, with which the understanding can be transferred to other bat-tery systems.[21–29] Here, we used RuO2 as a testing electrode material run on the conversion reaction to study the effects of dimensional confinement. RuO2 thin films at different thick-ness were grown first by pulsed laser deposition (PLD). With an electric biasing transmission electron microscopy (TEM) holder with a movable probe, a small prototype all solid lithium-ion battery half-cell can be built inside the TEM.[30–34] In the half cell, RuO2 thin film was used as cathode, the Li2O as solid elec-trolyte and Li as anode. We then studied the morphological and structural evolutions of the RuO2 thin films’ lithiation. We designed three types of in situ TEM experiments: RuO2 film of 4.1 nm (Type I) and 12.4 nm (Type II) in thickness with Li-ion diffusion along the side-wall direction of the film, and RuO2 film of 12.4 nm with Li-ion diffusion along the vertical direc-tion (direction perpendicular to the film) as Type III (Figure S1, Supporting Information).

The electrochemical lithiation in RuO2 thin film is found to be greatly influenced by the interfaces created in the dimen-sional confinement. In the RuO2 film of 4.1 nm, Li-ions are found to have a fast diffusing path along the side-wall direc-tion introducing a fast reaction and also large volume change in lithiation. It seems that the lithiation is dominated by the interface when the film is very thin. In RuO2 film of 12.4 nm, Li-ions are found to have a preferential diffusing path along the interface between RuO2 film and Al2O3 substrate. Although the area of the thin film’s side-edge is much smaller than that of the film’s top surface (exposed to electrolyte), its contribution to electrochemical reaction is important, as the ions’ diffusion and electrochemical reaction along the interface is much faster than those from the top surface. Our work demonstrates that dimensionally confined RuO2 films can have different lithiation behaviors, providing valuable insights into the design and fabri-cation of 1D or 2D nanostructured materials for LIBs with high power and cyclic stability.

2. Results and Discussion

We fabricated RuO2 thin films with different thickness onto Al2O3 substrate using PLD (details described in the Experi-mental Section). Figure 1a and Figure S2 (Supporting Infor-mation) show the cross-sectional TEM image of RuO2 films on Al2O3 substrate. A thin layer of Pt was deposited on top of RuO2 as the protecting layer. From selected-area electron diffraction (SAED) patterns in Figure 1b,c, the RuO2 film with tetragonal structure was epitaxially grown on the single-crystalline Al2O3 substrate (RuO2 (101)//Al2O3 (112)). The lattice misfit in the [101]RuO2 direction between RuO2 and Al2O3 is about 6.4% and thus there is misfit strain in the interface due to the lattice mis-match (Figure S3, Supporting Information).[35] When the RuO2 electrode is exposed to the electrolyte, the top surface provides a large area into which the Li-ion can diffuse, which has been marked as Diffusion Path 1 (Figure 1d). Meanwhile, there is

also an opportunity for Li-ions to diffuse along the side-wall of the thin film, labeled Diffusion Path 2. In general, 2D-like thin films or plate-shaped materials have two Li-diffusion paths: a large top–bottom surface and ultrathin side wall. We thus designed in situ TEM experiments to investigate the electro-chemical reaction of RuO2 thin films with Li-ions by the two Li-ion diffusing routes (Figure 1f and Figure S1, Supporting Information). The focused ion beam (FIB)-cleaved RuO2 sample was mounted on the TEM grid as a cathode, and the Li2O solid electrolyte with Li metal (as anode) was selectively connected by STM control system to build a half-cell battery inside the TEM. The diffusion of Li-ion along the RuO2 films is controlled by potentiostatic bias between the two electrodes. By positioning the Li2O/Li probe in different orientations along the RuO2 thin sections prepared by FIB, the diffusing path of Li-ions can be directed either along the top surface or along the side-wall of the thin film. The interface between an Al2O3 substrate and the RuO2 film can be identified due to the lattice mismatch (Figure 1e).

The Li-ion diffusion along the side-wall direction in an ultrathin RuO2 films is fast, as the entire film is under the direct influence of the interface. We fabricated 4.1 nm RuO2 films onto Al2O3 substrate to study electrochemical behavior of ultrathin RuO2 films (diffusion path 2), as shown in Figure 2a. The pristine RuO2 film is uniformly formed on the Al2O3 sub-strate, showing atomic mismatch in the interface region and the film (Figure 2b). The counter electrode composed of Li metal and Li2O electrolyte is then directly connected to the edge of RuO2 (prepared by FIB technique, as shown in Figure S1a, Supporting Information), enabling only Li-ion diffusion along the side-wall direction. Meanwhile, the other side of the RuO2 film is connected to the Pt electrode as the electric collector of the electrochemical battery. The Li2O/Li probe is connected to the left side of the film, and the Li-ion diffusion is from the left to right side. From the time-lapsed TEM images of RuO2 films during lithiation process (Figure 2c and Video S1, Sup-porting Information), a gradual transformation in the RuO2 film is observed from the left to the right side. For most metal oxides in lithiation, the electrochemical reaction consists of two steps: intercalation reaction followed by conversion reaction. In the intercalation reaction, the volume expansion is normally quite small with formation of LixMyOz (where M = metal) type phase. Sequentially, large volume expansion and morphological changes are normally observed during the conversion stage, due to the formation of Li2O and phase separation (i.e., island-like structure of mixture of metal and Li2O). Here in the film of 4.1 nm, it is, however, hard to distinguish the two types of reac-tions in lithiation as the reaction interface moved from left to the right. When the reaction occurred very quickly, it seemed that the intercalation reaction (LixRuO2) has been bypassed, as the single-crystalline RuO2 film converted to nanostructured material with a mixture of Ru and Li2O nanoparticles instantly. The thickness of RuO2 film increased by 124.4% after full lithi-ation (Figure 2d).

We fabricated a thin RuO2 film with the increased thickness of 12.4 nm and used it as the cathode in the half-cell miniature battery to monitor the effects of film thickness to electrochem-ical reactions. Figure 3a–d show time-lapsed cross-sectional TEM and corresponding high-resolution TEM (HRTEM)

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images of the RuO2 film during lithiation process. Interest-ingly, we found that Li-ion was selectively intercalated along the interface region at the early stage. Along the interface, the morphological and volumetric changes are obvious, while in the upper area of the film the original structure of RuO2 maintains well without noticeable changes (15 s). In about 25 s lithiation after the RuO2 in the interface has been completely lithiated, the reaction front moved upward indicating Li-ion dif-fusion from the interface region (with high Li-ion concentra-tion) to upper RuO2 film (with low Li-ion concentration). After the whole film has been lithiated, there is a 99.2% expansion in

thickness (Figure S4a, Supporting Information). The observa-tion shows that diffusion of Li-ion along the interface is much faster than that inside the film (Figure 3f). The enhancement of Li-ion diffusion along the interface region can be also identified in a thin film with ≈4 nm thickness under specific conditions (Figure S6 and Video S2, Supporting Information), in which the Li–Li2O probe was connected far away from the edge of RuO2 film thus Li-ions’ diffusion was reduced. Based on the previous studies, the lithiation behaviors can be classified according to the shape of RuO2. Nanowire normally shows “edge-to-edge” behavior which the lithiation starts from the contacted Li-metal

Adv. Funct. Mater. 2018, 1805723

Figure 1. a) Cross-sectional TEM image of RuO2 thin film grown onto Al2O3 substrate. SAED patterns obtained from b) Al2O3 substrate and c) RuO2 film including the substrate. d) Illustration of the diffusion paths that Li-ions can penetrate into RuO2 thin film–based structure. e) Cross-sectional HRTEM image of RuO2 film and Al2O3 substrate including the interface region between them. Each inset shows FFT patterns converted from RuO2 film and the substrate, respectively. f) Schematic illustration of in situ experimental set up inside a TEM. RuO2-based electrode is prepared by FIB technique, and Li-metal electrode is controlled by STM system.

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part to the other part,[26,29] while nanoparticle has a “shrinking-core” model in which reactions occur from the surface to the core. Here, we showed the interface formed in thin-film struc-ture provides a fast ion-diffusion path for lithiation, which can be termed as “interface-to-film” process. The interface has a low activation barrier for diffusion and reaction, possibly due to the high strain existing in the interface. For dimensionally confined nanostructures, many interfaces are naturally created, which will alter the lithiation mechanism.

The phase transformation of RuO2 thin film of 12.4 nm in lithiation are identified by HRTEM images and SAED pat-terns. Figure 4a shows SAED patterns of hetero-epitaxial grown RuO2 film and Al2O3 substrate, showing pristine RuO2 film has a single-crystalline structure. As we confirmed from HRTEM observation and energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) map (Figure S7, Supporting Information), RuO2 structure is converted into the expanded matrix with bright contrast and nanoparticles

with the dark contrast after lithiation process. From SAED pat-terns and intensity profiles in Figure 4b,c, phases formed after lithiation can be identified as Li2O and metal Ru nanoparticles.

We then studied the Li-ion diffusion along the top surface direction of the RuO2 thin film to investigate its effects to lithi-ation (diffusion path 1). The top surface will be fully exposed to electrolyte in a real battery, thus the behavior of Li-ion diffu-sion along this direction is important to understand the elec-trochemical behavior. To study the electrochemical diffusion of Li-ions in RuO2 thin film by in situ TEM, a Li metal elec-trode is connected to a Pt top layer which located far enough from the edge of RuO2 film. In contrast to the rapid diffusion of Li-ion along the interface region, Li-ions diffused slowly along the film-growing direction at the early stage (Figure 5 and Video S3, Supporting Information). We did not observe any diffusion and phase transformation along the interface, thus we termed this lithiation a “layer-to-layer” lithiation mode from

Adv. Funct. Mater. 2018, 1805723

Figure 2. a) Cross-sectional TEM image of the Type I battery cell with 4.1 nm RuO2 film. The inset shows FFT pattern obtained from Al2O3 substrate. b) HRTEM image of the interface region between RuO2 film and Al2O3 substrate. c) Time lapse TEM images of RuO2 thin film–based battery cell during the first lithiation process. Li-ions are diffused from the left side of TEM images marked by the arrow. d) Plot of the thickness and thickness expansion are based on the pristine value of RuO2 film as a function of reaction time.

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the top surface down to the whole film. This is similar to what previously reported in NiO thin film electrodes where conver-sion reaction started from the interfacial regions and propa-gated into the matrix.[17,36] Meanwhile, the electrochemical reaction occurred in the “layer-to-layer” type is much slower than the “interface-to-film” type. The film thickness increased from 12.0 to 16.0 nm after lithiation, given a 33.6% expansion (Figure S4b, Supporting Information). As the reaction Li-diffu-sion/reaction speed is relatively slow, there is an obvious stage of intercalation which could provide stable electrochemical properties (Figure S8, Supporting Information).

From the three in situ TEM observations performed in this work, we find that a fast Li-ion diffusion and reaction lead to a shortened intercalation stage and a large volume expansion. When the RuO2 thin film is only ≈4 nm and the Li-ions are mainly diffused along the side-wall direction, its lithiation is dominated by interface effects and has a very high speed of lithiation. The reaction product showed, however, the largest volume expansion. When the film thickness increased to ≈12 nm (while the lithium-ion diffuses still along the side-wall direction), the interface effect remained at the interface area which led to a medium lithiation speed. The reaction product also showed medium volume expansion. When the lithium-ion diffusion direction is controlled to mainly along the top surface to inner film direction, the lithiation/diffusion speed is slow. There is then an obvious and longer intercalation stage leading to the smallest volume expansion among the three observations.

Strain and defects-induced fast ion diffusion could be the underlying cause of the three lithiation modes. A recent DFT calculation shows that interfacial strain can strongly affect ionic conductivities and enhance lithium transport.[37] Our GPA anal-ysis shows that the strain at the RuO2/Al2O3 interface has been released in the lithiated RuO2 thin film as shown in Figure S12 (Supporting Information). When lithium-ions diffuse from the side of the films, the interface where the strain is highest becomes the path of fast diffusion. This is the cause of the “interface-dominant” and “interface-to-film” lithiation modes.

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Figure 3. a) Time lapse cross-sectional TEM images of 12.4 nm RuO2 thin film battery cell (Type II) during lithiation process. Li-metal electrode is connected to the right side of RuO2 film, and Li-ions are diffused along the blue arrows. HRTEM images of RuO2 film obtained from areas illustrated by squares at lithiation time of b) 0 s, c) 15 s, and d) 55 s lithiation time. e) FFT patterns converted from HRTEM image of (d). f) Cross-sectional TEM image of the boundary formed before/after conversion reaction of RuO2 film.

Figure 4. SAED patterns of RuO2 film of 12.4 nm on Al2O3 substrate obtained from the same region a) at the pristine state and b) after lithiation process, respectively. Single crystalline RuO2 film changes into Li2O and Ru phases after conversion process. c) Intensity profiles are based on the SAED patterns of Al2O3 substrate (Figure 1b) and RuO2 film onto substrate before/after lithiation process as a function of the distance.

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When the film thickness is thin (such as ≈4 nm), the enhance-ment of ionic diffusion in up and down interfaces becomes dominant which leads to a fast lithiation. Thus the “interface-dominant” mode happens only in very thin films in which film thickness is also an important factor. When Li-ions diffuse from the top of the films, lithiation occurs in “layer-to-layer” mode as there is no variation in strain and microstructure along this direction.

3. Conclusions

In summary, we studied the lithiation mechanism of RuO2 thin films by in situ TEM technique. Three types of miniature half-cells were designed and applied inside a TEM to characterize the electrochemical behavior and Li-diffusion pathway. The fast Li-diffusion and phase transformation occurred along the side-wall direction are observed in the ultrathin RuO2 film (≈4 nm), termed as “interface-dominate lithiation” mode. In the ≈12 nm RuO2 film, the fast intercalation and conversion process are observed along the interface region, and the reaction is propa-gated into the entire film, termed as “interface-to-film” mode.

When the lithium-ion diffusion is along the top-surface to inner film direction, the diffusion and lithiation are slow compared to the ones where interfaces are involved, the described “layer-to-layer” mode. Different diffusion and reaction mechanisms lead to different speeds of lithiation. Based on the current observa-tions of lithiation in films with ≈4 and ≈12 nm, we found that the higher the lithiation speed, the shorter the intercalation stage and the larger the volume expansion. We believe our findings will provide insights to understand electrochemical mechanism of dimensionally confined nanostructures and pave ways to designing nanostructured thin film–based electrodes for high performance lithium-ion battery.

4. Experimental SectionThin Film Fabrication: Crystalline RuO2 films were grown on sapphire

(1102) substrates. For the films grown at 350 °C, X-ray diffraction (XRD) established an alignment of RuO2 (101)//Al2O3(1102). Grazing incidence X-ray measurements provide strong evidence that the same in-plane epitaxial relationship existed [10 1]RuO2

//[1101]Al O2 3and [010]RuO2

//[1120]Al O2 3

.[35] The d-spacing of the (101) plane was measured to be 2.52 Å, which compared with the bulk value of 2.56 Å. The model suggested

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Figure 5. Time-lapse cross-sectional HRTEM images of RuO2 film with 12.0 nm thickness (Type III) during the first lithiation process. Li-metal is connected to the top Pt electrode, and Li-ions are diffused into RuO2 matrix through the top surface. The phase transformation of RuO2 film occurs via three steps: First, the intercalation process of vertical (120 s) and horizontal (124 s) direction. After inserting sufficient Li-ions into RuO2 film, it shows an amorphous-like structure (140 s). Finally, Li2O phase and Ru nanoparticles with the dark contrast are formed during the conversion step (200 s).

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the lattice mismatch is 6.4% in the [10 1]RuO2 direction and −3.5% in the

[010]RuO2 direction. Before film deposition, the substrates were cleaned

in acetone and isopropanol. The Pt/RuO2 multilayers were grown on the substrates by PLD using a PVD Products nanoPLD 1000. The laser was a 248 nm KrF excimer laser with 25 ns duration. The system had a background pressure of 4 × 10−8 Torr. The beam was focused onto a 1.5 × 3.5 mm spot on the targets. The targets were rotated at 15 rpm to prevent localized heating, and the laser pulses were swept across the target radius to additionally prevent localized heating. The target-substrate separation was fixed at 8 cm. The RuO2 layer was deposited using a dense hot-pressed RuO2 target, ≈25 mm in diameter. A laser pulse energy of 200 mJ per pulse# and a repetition rate of 5 Hz was used (#This is the energy as measured at the laser; there is ≈30% energy loss along the optical train between the laser and the target). The RuO2 films were deposited in a 10 mTorr oxygen ambient and a temperature of 350 °C. The substrates with the RuO2 films were removed to atmosphere and masked so as to cover the RuO2 film from both edges inward for 3 mm along the long axis of the substrate. The masked substrates were returned to the deposition chamber and pumped down to the background pressure. The Pt layer was deposited using a metallic Pt target, ≈25 mm in diameter. A laser pulse energy of 250 mJ per pulse# and a repetition rate 5 Hz was used. The Pt films were deposited in a 10 mTorr argon ambient and a temperature of 25 °C. X-ray reflectivity data (Figure S9, Supporting Information) show that the growing films have 40.9 and 112.5 Å thicknesses with surface roughness of 5–5.5 Å. XRR analysis used Motofit with a model that includes a sapphire substrate and RuO2 layer.[38] XRD measurements confirm an alignment of RuO2 (101) in perpendicular direction to substrate with domain sizes, which are corresponded to the film thicknesses (Figure S10a, Supporting Information). Horizontal domain size calculated from the rocking curves (Figure S10b, Supporting Information) is about 530 nm for both films. The films deposited on sapphire (1102) exhibit the epitaxial growth of RuO2 (Figure S11, Supporting Information).

Battery Test: To conduct cyclic voltammetry measurements of RuO2 thin film, RuO2 films of similar thicknesses were deposited in the same PLD conditions but without Pt top layer. Each sample was fully immersed in an electrochemical cell.[39] The electrochemical cell had separate lithium metal counter and reference electrodes and was fully immersed in a 1 m solution of LiClO4 in a 1:1 ratio of ethylene carbonate and dimethyl carbonate by volume. A CHI760E electrochemical workstation was used for electrochemical control of lithiation. The first cycle voltammograms between the open circuit potentials of the pristine films (3.46 V for 40.9 Å and 3.67 V for 112.5 Å films) and 0.05 V (with respect to Li/Li+) with the sweep rate of 0.2 mV s−1 was conducted.

TEM Characterization: FIB-cleaved RuO2 thin film sample was mounted to a TEM grid using Pt, and this grid was connected with a Nanofactory TEM-STM holder. Li metal with Li2O solid electrolyte was connected a piezo-driven metal probe in an Ar-filled glovebox and was assembled with a TEM holder. During the in situ electrochemical reaction inside the TEM, constant potential were maintained to RuO2 film against Li metal part. The in situ lithiation of RuO2 film along each direction was performed on a JEOL ARM 300CF operated at 300 kV, and TEM images were recorded using GATAN OneView camera with 4k × 4k resolution.

Supporting InformationSupporting Information is available from the Wiley Online Library or from the author.

AcknowledgementsS.K., Y.X., and J.W. (in situ TEM and interpretation), G.E., D.B.B., and M.B. (film synthesis and battery measurements), and V.P.D. (TEM

interpretation) were supported as part of the Center for Electrochemical Energy Science, an Energy Frontier Research Center funded by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Office of Science, Basic Energy Sciences under Award # DEAC02-06CH11357. J.W. and V.P.D. were also supported by the Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology (SAIT)’s Global Research Outreach (GRO) Program and the Initiative for Sustainability and Energy at Northwestern (ISEN). This work made use of the EPIC facility of Northwestern University’s NUANCECenter, which has received support from the Soft and Hybrid Nanotechnology Experimental (SHyNE) Resource (NSF ECCS-1542205); the MRSEC program (NSF DMR-1720139) at the Materials Research Center; the International Institute for Nanotechnology (IIN); the Keck Foundation; and the state of Illinois, through the IIN. The samples were grown in the Northwestern University Materials Research Center Pulsed Laser Deposition Facility supported by the MRSEC program (DMR-1720139). We also acknowledge the use of the X-ray Diffraction Facility supported by MRSEC and SHyNE.

Conflict of InterestThe authors declare no conflict of interest.

Keywordsin situ transmission electron microscopy (TEM), interface diffusion, lithium-ion batteries, ruthenium oxide, thin film electrodes

Received: August 16, 2018Revised: October 3, 2018

Published online:

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