Critical role of phase-dependent properties in modeling photothermal sintering of LiCoO2 cathodes

DOI

<p>Photothermal (photonic) sintering crystallizes as-deposited amorphous LiCoO2 (LCO) cathodes for solid-state thin-film batteries using millisecond, surface-localized heating. However, process design often relies on 1D models with phase-averaged, temperature-independent properties, which can mispredict peak temperatures and thermal damage margins. Here we develop a multiscale, data-driven framework that provides phase- and grain-size–resolved thermophysical inputs for stoichiometric LCO. We train an Allegro neural network potential with near-ab initio accuracy, enabling Green–Kubo calculations of thermal conductivity for crystalline and amorphous phases. The low, weakly density-dependent conductivity of amorphous LCO motivates its use as an effective intergranular phase in a thin-interface model that reproduces observed grain-size–dependent thermal transport. Combined with measured wavelength-resolved optical properties in 1D multiphysics simulations, we show amorphous LCO absorbs more strongly and reaches higher peak temperatures than crystalline LCO; thus crystalline, constant-property models systematically overestimate safe operating windows.</p>

Identifier
DOI https://doi.org/10.24435/materialscloud:3e-w9
Related Identifier https://archive.materialscloud.org/communities/mcarchive
Related Identifier https://doi.org/10.24435/materialscloud:ch-9k
Metadata Access https://archive.materialscloud.org/oai2d?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=oai_dc&identifier=oai:materialscloud.org:skbnr-9wx61
Provenance
Creator Hu, Yang; Sklenard, Benoit; Vels, Wouter; Romanyuk, Yaroslav; Turlo, Vladyslav
Publisher Materials Cloud
Contributor Turlo, Vladyslav
Publication Year 2026
Rights info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess; Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International; https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode
OpenAccess true
Contact archive(at)materialscloud.org
Representation
Language English
Resource Type info:eu-repo/semantics/other
Format application/zip; text/markdown
Discipline Materials Science and Engineering