Measurements at Desy Accelerator Centre in Hamburg

We have been studying, in collaboration with colleagues from the National Institute of Chemistry of Ljubljana, the course of the electrochemical reaction in the cathodes of organic batteries on X-ray beamline P01 of the PETRA III light source in Hamburg. Batteries based on redox active organic compounds represent an alternative to current Li-ion systems, mainly due to almost unlimited resources and lower energy consumption during their synthesis. Currently, the best candidates for use in battery systems are carbonyl compounds. The basis of electroactive carbonyl compounds is a reversible redox reaction, where the carbonyl group is reduced to an alkoxide anion, which can bind the metal cation. Reduction of the carbonyl bond in the discharge process was studied by the X-ray Raman scattering method, which allows the measurement of the absorption edges of light elements (in our case oxygen) using hard X-ray light and thus the analysis of bulk materials.