(Invited) Ion Irradiation Effects on Structural and Electrochemical Charge Storage Properties of Electroceramic Materials for Lithium-Ion Batteries

Lithium-ion batteries are promising battery technologies to provide high energy and high power for applications such as electric vehicles or electrical grids. Recent studies have observed that lithium-ion battery electrode materials (e.g. TiO 2 ) containing intentional structural defects exhibit enhanced electrochemical charge storage capacity. In this work we investigate the irradiation effect on structure and electrochemical response of TiO 2 nanotube electrodes through proton ion irradiation, because irradiation is known to produce an excess of defects in a material. In addition, we investigated heavy ion irradiation on TiO 2 single crystals to elucidate the effects of irradiating species and crystallographic orientation on defect production and microstructure evolution. We have observed defect generation upon irradiation in both nanostructured and single crystal TiO 2 samples and investigated the relationship between irradiation-induced defects and the electrochemical properties of the TiO 2 samples.