Correlative Raman, SEM and EDX for operando electrochemistry research

扩大可再生能源的使用不仅至关重要，而且迫在眉睫。化石燃料的供应有限，它们的使用会带来毁灭性的环境后果，如大气污染和气候变化。幸运的是，在利用太阳能和风能等可再生资源发电方面取得了重大进展，但不幸的是，这些能源并不是在需要的时候和地点产生的。用电池储存能量可以很容易地解决这个问题，但不幸的是，电池寿命不够长，而且太贵了。电池也过于笨重和笨重，这对零排放电动汽车来说尤其成问题。很明显，开发更好的电池对未来至关重要。我们提议建立一种新的能力，它将彻底改变我们理解和设计更好电池的工具。这一新能力将使人们能够在远低于头发直径的尺度上表征电池和电池组件的化学、元素组成和结构/形态。这将通过一种综合仪器实现，该仪器使用智能定位系统在空间上精确地关联形态表征(用电子显微镜完成)、元素组成(用特殊元素敏感探测器完成)和化学结构(用拉曼显微镜完成)。通过将这三种技术结合在一起，我们将极大地提高我们对真实电池材料复杂的、空间上不均匀的反应性的理解。这将在全球研究的前沿产生独特的见解，以设计制造更好电池的新战略。我们将围绕这一新能力建立一个包容和协作的研究社区，将产业界和大学的研究人员聚集在一起，促进创新方法和新的研究项目和方向。新的能力将促进具有不同背景和专业领域的研究人员之间的合作、团队合作和科学讨论。

The expansion in the use of renewable energy resources is not only of paramount importance, it is also urgent. Fossil fuels are limited in supply and their use entails devastating environmental consequences such as atmospheric pollution and climate change. Fortunately, major advances have been achieved in the generation of energy from renewable resources including sun and wind, but unfortunately, the energy is not generated when and where it is needed. This issue could be easily solved with batteries to store the energy, but unfortunately, batteries do not last long enough and they are too expensive. Batteries are also too heavy and bulky, and this is particularly problematic for zero-emission electric vehicles. It is clear that developing better batteries is crucial for the future.We propose to set up a new capability that will revolutionize the tools we have to understand and design better batteries. The new capability will enable the characterisation of the chemistry, elemental composition and structure/morphology of batteries and battery components on a scale far below the diameter of a human hair. This will be achieved with an integrated instrument that uses an intelligent positioning system to precisely spatially correlate the morphological characterisation (done with an electron microscope), the elemental composition (done with a special element-sensitive detector) and the chemical structure (done with a Raman microscope). By bringing together these three techniques we will greatly improve our understanding of the complex and spatially heterogeneous reactivity of real battery materials. This will generate unique insights at the forefront of research worldwide for the design of new strategies to build better batteries. We will establish an inclusive and collaborative research community around this new capability, binging together researchers in industry and university, and fostering innovative approaches and new research projects and directions. The new capability will facilitating cooperation, team work and scientific discussions among researchers with different backgrounds and areas of expertise.