ACCELERATING BATTERY AND
ENERGY STORAGE RESEARCH
A low-carbon economy requires safer, longer-lasting,
and efficient renewable energy conversion and
storage technologies ESRFEBSs highly penetrating
Xrays let researchers see even deeper into the heart
of batteries electrolysers photovoltaic cells and
other energy materials Structural morphological
and chemical changes can be detected with
unrivalled resolution and speed across multiple
length scales from atoms to full devices
allowing processes to be observed in real time
under true operating conditions
For example highenergy Xray diffraction at
beamline ID15A has captured rapid structural
EBS SCIENCE
Quantifying Heterogeneous Degradation Pathways
and Deformation Fields in SolidState Batteries
J Hu et al Adv Energy Mater 15 2404231 2024
Unveiling transport mechanisms of cesium and
water in operando zerogap CO
2
electrolyzers
BO Joensen et al Joule 86 17541771 2024
Tuning the electronic structure and SMSI
by integrating trimetallic sites with defective
ceria for the CO
2
reduction reaction C Singhvi et al
Proc Natl Acad Sci 122 e2411406122 2025
changes in working batteries, providing insights
to optimise safety, performance, and durability,
while high-throughput X-ray screening of battery
cathode samples at beamline ID31 accelerates
material testing for industry (see opposite). The
European Battery HUB, running at six ESRF
beamlines, supports collaborative, multimodal
characterisation, directly impacting a large research
community.
ESRF-EBS also drives ‘power-to-X’ research into
more stable and efficient systems to convert CO
2
into green fuels and chemicals. At ID31, research
led by the Technical University of Denmark used
operando X-ray scattering to track structural changes
associated with catalyst degradation in carbon
dioxide electrolysers, while X-ray spectroscopy at
ID26 has revealed how a breakthrough catalyst
achieves nine-fold higher CO
2
-to-CO conversion,
which could accelerate the transition to greener fuels.
By delivering unmatched insights at high speed,
ESRF-EBS is enabling faster innovation for a
sustainable, decarbonised future.
Combined micro-computed tomography and X-ray
diffraction computed tomography at ESRF beamline ID15A
mapped 3D deformation and deformation mechanisms in
solid-state batteries, revealing crack distribution (top) and
degradation pathways (bottom) caused by cell cycling (blue
box) and air exposure (pink box). Image courtesy of ref. 1.
1 mm