Grid indentation analysis of mechanical properties of composite electrodes in Li-ion batteries

Electrodes in commercial rechargeable batteries are microscopically heterogeneous materials. The constituent components, including active materials, polymeric binders, and porous conductive matrix, often have large variation in their mechanical properties, making the mechanical characterization of composite electrodes a challenging task. In a model system of LiNi0.5Mn0.3Co0.2O2 cathode, we employ the instrumented grid indentation to determine the elastic modulus and hardness of the constituent phases. The approach relies on a large array of nanoindentation experiments and statistical analysis of the resulting data provided that the maximum indentation depth is carefully chosen. The statistically extracted properties of the active particles and the surrounding medium are in good agreement with the tests of targeted indentation at selected sites. The combinatory technique of grid indentation and statistical deconvolution represents a fast and reliable route to quantify the mechanical properties of composite electrodes that feed the parametric input for the mechanics models.