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Battery HUB

As the battery market is exponentially growing, research and innovation in this field requires one to optimize advanced battery characterization schemes at large scale facilities, e.g. identifying relevant technique(s), writing beam time proposal(s), organizing the experiment(s), and acquisition, processing and analysis of the data sets. The complexity of the electrochemical systems and variety of parameters to be investigated, ideally in operando mode, calls for the simultaneous, or time-coordinated, use of different probes (neutron/X-rays), potentially at several beamlines (scattering, imaging or spectroscopy experiments), under different conditions (post-mortem, operando, controlled conditions), to be scheduled and performed to meet  the scientific objectives. In addition, specific needs are foreseen such as high-throughput experiments, dedicated sample environments including smart control/sensing and real (large size) devices, high quality experiments to be combined with big data analysis and multi-scale numerical simulations, or the need to acquire data repeatedly for long time periods on the same system during cycling. To date, single-shot experiments (granted through standard proposal submission) lead to a fragmented knowledge and satisfy short-term objectives, insufficient for a program for the development of advanced battery technology (high energy, high power, safer), where a more integrated (holistic) approach is clearly needed in the near-future. Within the standard proposal infrastructures, only limited coupling of different instruments is possible, with the organization of the multi-instrument experiments often problematic and not assured. The scope of the Battery Hub is to guarantee continuity, flexibility, reactivity, repeatability and efficiency.

Many ESRF beamlines are involved to cover the extended range of length and time scales required (from A to cm, from ps to months/years), as well as the variety of information needed (chemical, structural, morphological, electronic properties, transport properties, etc). Scattering, spectroscopic and imaging techniques are needed and potentially combined to perform (when possible):

• operando experiments to obtain the real-time behaviour of active materials

• spatially-resolved (2D/3D) investigations to quantify heterogeneities in the components / devices

• experiments on commercial devices and/or custom cells as representative as possible of real electrochemical performance and conditions of battery cycling

Main beamlines : ID01, ID02, ID10, ID12, ID13, ID15A, ID16A, ID16B, ID19, ID20, ID22, ID31, ID32, BM02, BM23, BM26, BM01,BM31, BM32.

Institutes: The 3-years pilot phase of the HUB is led by CEA, involving academic collaborators within national and European projects. After the pilot phase, European partners will be able to join the HUB by submitting applications to the Hub board (process & rules in construction).

Lead of pilot phase: CEA-DRF (fundamental research, IRIG at Grenoble and IRAMIS at Saclay); CEA-DRT (technological research, LITEN at Grenoble).

Main proposer: Sandrine Lyonnard (CEA-DRF); co-proposers: Samuel Tardif (CEA-DRF), Claire Villevieille (LEPMI), Jean-Francois Colin (CEA-DRT), Celine Barchasz (CEA-DRT)

Responsible scientists: Sandrine Lyonnard (IRIG) and Lise Daniel (LITEN)

Partners: LEPMI, European Academic labs within H2020 projects (BIGMAP, TEESMAT, ECO2LIB, Battery 2030+).

As a partner of the BAG, you agree to follow the standard ESRF rules (safety, sample declaration, GDPR, travel rules, data policy, ...).

Useful links:

esrf user policies and rules

esrf publications

Rules to integrate the Hub will be defined. Applications will be examined by the Hub board once a year. A partner should respect the HUB consortium agreement (in construction).

The Battery HUB is designed to gather together European battery research groups and Grenoble Large-Scale Facilities. The objective is to accelerate Research & Innovation on batteries by setting an open scientific, technical and communication platform dedicated to promoting, carrying out and analysing cutting-edge neutron and X-ray investigations of battery components and devices.

For the battery research community, the BAG/HUB mechanism enables enhanced flexibility and reactivity to simultaneously tackle an array of cross-sectorial scientific questions and probe an array of samples, e.g., technological- and/or chemistry-expanded campaigns of measurements where several types of materials/batteries may be investigated in parallel and correlatively.

The BAG/HUB scheme provides a novel structured approach in the field, including:

• regular access based on long-term research programs instead of stand-alone experiments – e.g., for a structured R&D approach to advance the development of next-generation battery materials,

• repeated access for long-term monitoring of samples and processes – e.g., for studies of ageing and degradation with cycling,

• access to multiple instruments at more than one LSF with a single proposal – e.g., for multimodal characterization of electrochemical processes on a variety of electrode materials / battery cells.