Phase-field modeling on the diffusion-driven processes in metallic conductors and lithium-ion batteries

Abstract: Diffusion-driven processes are important phenomena of materials science in the field of energy conversion and transmission. During the conversion from chemical energy to electrical energy, the species diffusion is generally linked to the rate of exchange, and hence to the performance of the conversion device. Alternatively, the transmission of the electric field diffuses the species when it passes through any medium. The consequences of this effect can be regulated to attune surface nano-patterns. Otherwise, uncontrolled morphologies may lead to permanent degradation of the metallic conductors. Therefore, the understanding of the material behavior, in the presence of the driving forces of the diffusional species, is of scientific interest. The presented dissertation proposes to investigate one example of species diffusion in each case, during energy conversion and transmission. Specifically, the objective of the study is to explore the lithium insertion into the cathode electrode of lithium-ion batteries and the morphological evolution of inclusions, while propagating under the electromigration in the metallic conductors. The presented dissertation demonstrates that the phase-field methods are able to elegantly capture the essential physics of the diffusion-driven phenomena discussed above.