This webinar will explore the solutions for preparing, imaging, and assessing lithium-ion batteries using diverse tools and approaches. It will highlight the approaches to preparing and transferring the samples to the selected tool in an inert transfer vessel without atmospheric exposure.
The first section of the webinar will examine preparing samples with JEOL USA’s air-isolated CROSS SECTION POLISHERTM, imaging via an SEM, and assessment using an energy-dispersive X-ray spectrometer (EDS). It will also include data from the company’s newly developed Gather-X Windowless EDS detector, which can identify ultra-low-energy elements, including lithium (with a Li K line of 54 eV). The analysis of lithium and other light elements demands low kV imaging and analysis and often high beam current.
The next part of the webinar focuses on sophisticated battery analysis information from a field emission Electron Probe Microanalyzer (FEG EPMA) with Wavelength Dispersive Spectrometers (up to 5 WDS + EDS), JEOL’s distinct Soft X-ray Emission Spectrometer (SXES), and an Auger microprobe. The webinar will demonstrate examples of applications from all of the approaches above.
Key Learning Objectives:
- Ultra-low energy imaging and microanalysis of battery materials
- Advanced light element detection in SEM and EPMA applications
- Specialized techniques for sample preparation and inert transfer of battery-specific materials
Presenters
Vern Robertson
EPMA/Surface Analysis Product Manager - JEOL USA Inc.
With 36.5 years at JEOL USA, Vern Robertson became EPMA/Surface Analysis Product Manager in 2015, adding to his SEM Technical Sales Manager role. He offers in-house and field technical product support and assistance with customer applications.
Vern initially joined JEOL USA in 1986 as the Senior SEM Applications Specialist. He was named National Laboratory Manager in 2004 and later took on the FEG SEM Product Manager role in 2005.
Vern holds a B.Sc. in Geology from the University of New Hampshire. Before JEOL, he spent eight years in independent consulting, focusing on industrial and environmental solutions. He used techniques such as polarized light optical microscopy, atomic emission and absorption spectroscopy, SEM with EDS/WDS, and X-ray diffraction. He is a former member of the MAS (Microanalysis Society) Council.
Dr. Jennifer Misuraca
Senior SEM Applications Specialist - JEOL USA, Inc.
Dr. Jennifer Misuraca is a Senior SEM Applications Specialist focusing on field emission microscopes. Her responsibilities include customer applications support and training, technical product assistance, and microscope demonstrations.
Dr. Misuraca earned her Ph.D. in Physics from Florida State University in 2012, following a B.S. in Physics from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Her thesis research involved fabricating and analyzing lateral spin transport devices at cryogenic temperatures.
During her joint postdoctoral role at Brookhaven National Lab and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, she worked on discovering high-Tc superconductors and studying the thermal, electrical, and magnetic properties of highly correlated single-crystalline materials. She joined JEOL USA as an Applications Specialist in 2014 and was promoted to Senior SEM Applications Specialist in 2021. Dr. Misuraca also serves on the board of the New England Society for Microscopy.