Understanding the phase transition and Li-ion diffusion kinetics of Li-ion storage nanomaterials holds promising keys to further improve the cycle life and charge rate of the Li-ion battery. Traditional electrochemical studies were often based on a bulk electrode consisting of billions of electroactive nanoparticles, which washed out the intrinsic heterogeneity among individuals. Here, we employ optical microscopy, termed surface plasmon resonance microscopy (SPRM), to image electrochemical current of single LiCoO nanoparticles down to 50 fA during electrochemical cycling, from which the phase transition and Li-ion diffusion kinetics can be quantitatively resolved in a single nanoparticle, in operando and high throughput manner. SPRM maps the refractive index (RI) of single LiCoO nanoparticles, which significantly decreases with the gradual extraction of Li-ions, enabling the optical read-out of single nanoparticle electrochemistry. Further scanning electron microscopy characterization of the same batch of nanoparticles led to a bottom-up strategy for studying the structure-activity relationship. As RI is an intrinsic property of any material, the present approach is anticipated to be applicable for versatile kinds of anode and cathode materials, and to facilitate the rational design and optimization toward durable and fast-charging electrode materials.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/jacs.6b08923 | DOI Listing |
Phys Rev Lett
December 2024
Flatiron Institute, Center for Computational Quantum Physics, New York, New York 10010, USA.
The two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) is a fundamental model, which is drawing increasing interest because of recent advances in experimental and theoretical studies of 2D materials. Current understanding of the ground state of the 2DEG relies on quantum Monte Carlo calculations, based on variational comparisons of different Ansätze for different phases. We use a single variational ansatz, a general backflow-type wave function using a message-passing neural quantum state architecture, for a unified description across the entire density range.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPhys Rev Lett
December 2024
Johns Hopkins University, Institute for Quantum Matter and Department of Physics and Astronomy, Baltimore, Maryland 21218, USA.
The tetragonal heavy-fermion superconductor CeRh_{2}As_{2} (T_{c}=0.3 K) exhibits an exceptionally high critical field of 14 T for B∥c. It undergoes a field-driven first-order phase transition between superconducting states, potentially transitioning from spin-singlet to spin-triplet superconductivity.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPhys Rev Lett
December 2024
Quantinuum, 303 S. Technology Court, Broomfield, Colorado 80021, USA.
Although quantum mechanics underpins the microscopic behavior of all materials, its effects are often obscured at the macroscopic level by thermal fluctuations. A notable exception is a zero-temperature phase transition, where scaling laws emerge entirely due to quantum correlations over a diverging length scale. The accurate description of such transitions is challenging for classical simulation methods of quantum systems, and is a natural application space for quantum simulation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPhys Rev Lett
December 2024
Brookhaven National Laboratory, Condensed Matter Physics and Materials Science Division, Upton, New York 11973, USA.
The notion of "half fire, half ice" was recently introduced to describe an exotic macroscopic ground-state degeneracy emerging in a ferrimagnet under the critical magnetic field, in which the "hot" spins are fully disordered on the sublattice with smaller magnetic moments and the "cold" spins are fully ordered on the sublattice with larger magnetic moments. Here, we further point out that this state has a twin named "half ice, half fire" in which the hot and cold spins switch positions. The new state is an excited state-thus hidden in the ground-state phase diagram-and is robust with respect to the interactions that destroy the half-fire, half-ice state.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPhys Rev Lett
December 2024
BM Research Europe, Hartree Centre, Daresbury WA4 4AD, United Kingdom.
In this Letter, we study the phase transition between amorphous ices and the nature of the hysteresis cycle separating them. We discover that a topological transition takes place as the system transforms from low-density amorphous ice (LDA) at low pressures to high-density amorphous ice (HDA) at high pressures. Specifically, we uncover that the hydrogen bond network (HBN) displays qualitatively different topologies in the LDA and HDA phases: the former characterized by disentangled loop motifs, with the latter displaying topologically complex long-lived Hopf-linked and knotted configurations.
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