Issue Date: December 13, 2010 Peering Into A Battery A tiny
lithium-ion rechargeable battery built inside a transmission
electron microscope shows for the first time how a SnO2 nanowire
electrode swells and distorts as it is charged, researchers
report in Science (DOI: 10.1126/science.1195628). The open-cell
battery uses an ionic liquid electrolyte with a low vapor
pressure to resist evaporation under vacuum in the microscope.
Calling the experiment “ingenious,” Yet-Ming Chiang, a professor
of materials science and engineering at Massachusetts Institute
of Technology, says in a commentary accompanying the paper that
a better understanding of how SnO2 accommodates the strain of
charging “should contribute to the design of nanoscale
electrodes that fully exploit the potential of ultrahigh-
capacity storage materials.” A crystalline SnO2 nanowire made up
the battery anode in the study, with bulk LiCoO2 serving as the
cathode. Researchers from Sandia and Pacific Northwest National
Labs, the University of Pittsburg