Correlative Raman, SEM and EDX for operando electrochemistry research

扩大使用可再生能源不仅极为重要，而且十分紧迫。化石燃料的供应有限，其使用造成破坏性的环境后果，如大气污染和气候变化。幸运的是，在利用包括太阳能和风能在内的可再生资源发电方面取得了重大进展，但不幸的是，能源并没有在需要的时候和地方产生。这个问题可以很容易地用电池来储存能量，但不幸的是，电池的寿命不够长，而且太贵了。电池也太重太大，这对于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。我们建议建立一种新的能力，这将彻底改变我们了解和设计更好电池的工具。新的能力将能够在远低于人类头发直径的范围内对电池和电池组件的化学、元素组成和结构/形态进行表征。这将通过一个集成的仪器来实现，该仪器使用智能定位系统来精确地在空间上关联形态表征（用电子显微镜完成）、元素组成（用特殊的元素敏感检测器完成）和化学结构（用拉曼显微镜完成）。通过将这三种技术结合起来，我们将大大提高我们对真实的电池材料的复杂性和空间异质性反应性的理解。这将在全球研究的前沿产生独特的见解，以设计新的策略来制造更好的电池。我们将围绕这一新能力建立一个包容性和协作性的研究社区，将工业和大学的研究人员聚集在一起，并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知识领域的研究人员之间的合作、团队工作和科学讨论。

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.