Development of powder diffraction anomalous fine structure method and applications to electrode materials for rechargeable batteries

A powder diffraction anomalous fine structure (P-DAFS) method is developed both in analytical and experimental techniques and applied to cathode materials for lithium ion batteries. The DAFS method, which is an absorption spectroscopic technique through a scattering measurement, enables us to analyze the chemical states and the local structures of a certain element at different sites, thanks to the nature of x-ray diffraction, where the contributions from each site are different at each diffraction. Electrode materials for rechargeable batteries frequently exhibit the interchange between Li and a transition metal, which is known as the cation mixing phenomena. This cation mixing significantly affects the whole electrode properties; therefore, the site-distinguished understanding of the roles of the transition metal is essential for further material design by controlling and positively utilizing this cation mixing phenomenon. However, the developments of the P-DAFS method are required for the applications to the practical materials such as the electrode materials. In the present study, a direct analysis technique to extract the absorption spectrum from the scattering without using the conventional iterative calculations, fast and accurate measurement techniques of the P-DAFS method, and applications to a typical electrode material of Li_1-xNi_1+xO₂, which exhibits the significant cation mixing, are described. (author)