Accurate Characterization of Ion Transport Properties in Binary Symmetric Electrolytes Using In Situ NMR Imaging and Inverse Modeling.

We used NMR imaging (MRI) combined with data analysis based on inverse modeling of the mass transport problem to determine ionic diffusion coefficients and transference numbers in electrolyte solutions of interest for Li-ion batteries. Sensitivity analyses have shown that accurate estimates of these parameters (as a function of concentration) are critical to the reliability of the predictions provided by models of porous electrodes. The inverse modeling (IM) solution was generated with an extension of the Planck-Nernst model for the transport of ionic species in electrolyte solutions.