Journal articles and book contributions

Calendar and cycle ageing affects the performance of the lithium-ion batteries from the moment they are manufactured. An important process that occurs as a part of the ageing is corrosion of the current collectors, especially prominent in the case of the aluminium substrate for the positive electrode. Generally, aluminium resists corrosion due to the formation of a non-permeable film of native aluminium oxide. Nevertheless, at certain electrochemical conditions corrosion affects the interface of the current collector. As a consequence of corrosion, the cathode materials lose electrical and mechanical contact with the current collector, leading to capacity and power fading. Therefore, a deeper understanding of this process and effective corrosion inhibition are necessary to prevent the deterioration of the battery performance. This review provides an updated critical overview of the mechanisms of aluminium corrosion, methodologies for analysing this phenomenon, and approaches for its effective mitigation. As the influence of multiple factors on the corrosion process has a central impact, the review discusses how they specifically affect the undergoing processes. Therefore, appropriate examples of important factors like electrolyte composition, thermal conditions and electrochemical parameters are presented to explain the specific mechanism of aluminium corrosion. Since corrosion inhibition is an important technological issue with a tremendous economic impact the review summarises how to achieve this by adjusting the electrochemical system and enhancing the knowledge on the safe operation of the positive electrode.

Supersaturated Ni-Au solid solution particles were synthesized by rapid solid-state dewetting of bilayer thin films deposited onto c-plane sapphire single-crystals. Rapid thermal annealing above the miscibility gap of the Ni-Au system followed by quenching to room temperature resulted in textured and faceted submicron-sized particles as a function of alloying content in the range of 0-28 at% Au. Morphologically, the observed kinetic crystal shapes are confined by close-packed planes; in addition, high-index facets are identified as a function of alloying content by TEM cross-sectioning and equilibrium crystal shape simulations. All samples exhibit a distinct <111> out-of-plane as well as in-plane texture along densely packed directions. Lattice parameters extracted from independent orthogonal X-ray and electron diffraction techniques prove the formation of a solid solution without tetragonal distortion imposed by the sapphire substrate. At the particle-substrate interface of highly alloyed particles segregation of Au atoms as well as dislocations in stand-off position are found. These observations are in-line with a semi-coherent interface, where Au segregation is triggered by the reduction of the overall strain energy due to: (i) a lower shear modulus on the particle side of the interface, (ii) the shifting of misfit dislocations in stand-off position further away from the stiffer substrate and (iii) a reduction of intrinsic misfit dislocation strain energy on the tensile side. In addition, the mechanical properties of pure and alloyed particles were characterized by in situ compression experiments in the SEM. Typical force-displacement data of defect-free single-crystals were obtained, reaching the theoretical strength of Ni for particles smaller than 400 nm. Alloying changes the mechanical response from an intermittent and discrete plastic flow behavior into a homogeneous deformation regime at large compressive strain.

Low kinetic energy electrons are of interest for probing nanoscale dynamic processes using ultrafast electron microscopy techniques. Their low velocities reduce radiation doses and enhance the interaction with confined electromagnetic fields and, thus, may enable ultrafast spectroscopy of single nanostructures. Recent improvements in the spatial and temporal resolution of ultrafast, low-energy electron microscopy have been achieved by combining nanotip photoemitters and point-projection imaging schemes. Here, we use such an ultrafast point-projection electron microscope (UPEM) to analyze the interaction of low-energy electrons with transient electric fields created by photoemission from a nanogap antenna. By analyzing their kinetic energy distribution, we separate angular deflection due to radial field components from electron energy gain and loss due to their axial acceleration. Our measurements open up a route toward the spatial and temporal characterization of vectorial near-fields by low-energy electron streaking spectroscopy.

To characterize the influence of environmental conditions on glass weathering, two different float glasses were subjected to a six-month outdoor experiment that took place in Durres (seacoast, Albania), Ilmenau (rural, Germany) and Pristina (urban, Kosovo), three sites with largely different environmental conditions. Atmospheric deposits and meteorological conditions led this study to receive information about different weathering behaviour of two types of float glasses. Typical glass degradation effects and reaction products at the glass surface are shown and the impact of weathering and air quality parameters on the formation of reaction products and degradation is discussed. Surface changes have been localized using optical microscopy. Further investigations for receiving chemical information on the contaminations include Auger electron spectroscopy (AES) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM/EDX). Surface analyses indicate a high amount of weathering products such as chlorides, sulphates and carbonates followed by severe delamination effects for both types of glass exposed in Durres and Pristina. In contrast to this, low levels of soiling and degradation for the samples exposed in Ilmenau were detected.

Heteroepitaxy of planar, low-defect III-V semiconductor layers on Ge(100) requires a single-domain substrate surface, where dimer rows are aligned in parallel on atomically well-ordered terraces, which are separated by steps of even numbered atomic height. The presence of Ga and As in the sample ambience crucially impacts the preparation of such Ge(100) surfaces. Ga and As are commonly omnipresent, when applying metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD), either directly supplied by precursors, in the form of MOCVD reactor residuals, or both. We study the impact of the growth conditions on the Ge(100) surface formation in situ, in dependence on the reactor pre-conditioning, the type of As supply, and/or temperature, utilizing surface-sensitive reflection anisotropy spectroscopy. We benchmark the in situ spectra to in system X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, low energy electron diffraction and scanning tunneling microscopy. We find that interaction of tertiarybutylarsine (TBAs) with a coating of the inner MOCVD reactor walls by GaAs residuals favors desorption of As from reactor parts resulting in As-dimers on the Ge(100) surface, which are rotated by 90&ring; compared to preparation routes employing TBAs in Ga-free ambience. The optical in situ control enables precise adjustment and switching between distinct Ge(100) surface reconstructions for subsequent III-V heteroepitaxy.