Magnetic Force Dilatometry for Operando Coin Cell Electrochemical Dilation Measurements

Operando characterization of the physical and chemical changes occurring within batteries during electrochemical cycling has become a powerful tool for next generation technology development. In particular, a better understanding of the expansion (dilation) behavior of active materials during charge/discharge is critical for mitigating performance degradation, particularly for high expansion materials like Li or Si. However, current dilatometry devices rely on direct mechanical coupling or line-of-sight measurements with pouch- or custom-cells, which prohibits their use in the most common and accessible research battery format: coin cells. To this end, we propose a novel magnetic force dilatometry (MFD) technique for operando electrochemical dilation measurements. Our custom low-cost dilatometer utilizes magnetic force sensing for contactless expansion measurements via facile replacement of the austenitic spacer with a ferritic spacer within a coin cell. To validate this setup, we demonstrate operando electrochemical dilatometry of a LiNiMnCoO (NMC622) || Li metal full cell in a CR2032 format. Our MFD accurately captures cell expansion/contraction with sensitivities of less than 0.1 μm, and reliability for over hundreds of hours and cycles. This new MFD method is expected to increase the accessibility of electrochemical dilatometry by eliminating the need for pouch cells or other specialized cell expansion measurement configurations.