Functional Scanning Force Microscopy for Energy Nanodevices

Abstract

Energy nanodevices, including energy conversion and energy storage devices, have become a major cross-disciplinary field in recent years. These devices feature long-range electron and ion transport coupled with chemical transformation, which call for novel characterization tools to understand device operation mechanisms. In this context, recent developments in functional scanning force microscopy techniques and their application in thin-film photovoltaic devices and lithium batteries are reviewed. The advantages of scanning force microscopy, such as high spatial resolution, multimodal imaging, and the possibility of in situ and in operando imaging, are emphasized. The survey indicates that functional scanning force microscopy is making significant contributions in understanding materials and interfaces in energy nanodevices.

A Review of Lithium‐Ion Battery Electrode Drying: Mechanisms and Metrology

“…Although highly sensitive, it is not expected that AFM techniques can be integrated into drying metrology measurements due to the high sensitivity of the machine to vibrations. Advanced AFM systems not only probing surface properties such as morphology, [ 56 ] but also mechanical (e.g., elastic modulus), [ 57 ] electrical (e.g., conductivity, permittivity), [ 58 ] functional properties [ 59 ] (e.g., piezoelectric response), etc. [ 56a ]…”

Characterizing Batteries by In Situ Electrochemical Atomic Force Microscopy: A Critical Review

“…These broadly fall into two categories; those that rely on electrochemical processes or ionic transport, such as scanning electrochemical microscopy (SECM), [ 302–305 ] scanning ion conductance microscopy (SICM), [ 306 ] scanning electrochemical cell microscopy (SECCM) [ 307 ] and electrochemical strain microscopy (ESM); [ 308–311 ] and those that probe properties intrinsic to the electrode material, like Kelvin probe force microscopy (KPFM) [ 312,313 ] and electrostatic force microscopy (EFM). [ 314 ] These techniques, and their application to study battery materials, have been reviewed elsewhere, [ 23–25,315–317 ] but the degree to which they are less, or more, able than EC‐AFM to study realistic batteries in relevant environments has not and hence will briefly be discussed.…”

Nonlocal integral thermoelasticity: A thermodynamic framework for functionally graded beams

“…Finally, the variational problem at hand can be alternatively solved by the application of the minimum total complementary energy principle. Translation is related to the uniform elongation term u (1) 0 and thermal elongation α∆θ, while the rotation due to bending causes −w (2) (z − z 0 ). In the neutral surface, axial displacement due to rotation (and consequently strain due to bending) must vanish.…”

“…In the present case, the shift of the neutral surface is not zero. The first and second derivative of the stress σ (1) , σ (2) now have nonlocal character, Eq. (10): (2) ).…”

“…nonlocal phenomena) are observed since the forces irrelevant at the classical engineering scale (where structures are sized in centimetres or meters) are now important in such small structures. Increased technological developments at microscale and nanoscale require more accurate mechanical solutions, fuelling the increased interest of the research community [1][2][3].…”