Operando NRVS on LiFePO₄ Battery with ⁵⁷Fe Phonon DOS

The vibration properties of materials play a role in their conduction of electric charges. are Ionic conductors such as electrodes and solid electrolytes are also relevant in this respect. The vibration properties are typically assessed with infrared and Raman spectroscopy, and inelastic neutron scattering, which all allow for the derivation of the phonon density of states (PDOS) in part of a full portion of the Brioullin zone. Nuclear resonant vibration spectroscopy (NRVS) is a novel method that produces the element-specific PDOS from Mössbauer-active isotopes in a compound. We employed NRVS operando on a pouch cell battery containing a Li⁵⁷FePO₄ electrode, and thus could derive the PDOS of the ⁵⁷Fe in the electrode during charging and discharging. The spectra reveal reversible vibrational changes associated with the two-phase conversion between LiFePO₄ and FePO₄, as well as signatures of metastable intermediate states. We demonstrate how the NRVS data can be used to tune the atomistic simulations to accurately reconstruct the full vibration structures of the battery materials in operando conditions. Unlike optical techniques, NRVS provides bulk-sensitive, element-specific access to the full phonon spectrum under realistic operando conditions. These results establish NRVS as a powerful method to probe lattice dynamics in working batteries and to advance the understanding of ion transport and phase transformation mechanisms in electrode materials.