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James Le Houx @thebeamline.bsky.social · 14d

ACS Spring 2026 abstract deadline: September 29th!

We're chairing a new session in Atlanta. If you use large-scale facilities to study energy storage materials with photons, neutrons, muons, or lasers, we want to hear from you.

Submit here: tinyurl.com/4e3envar

#chemsky #research #ACSSpring2026

ACS Spring 2026 - American Chemical Society

callforabstracts.acs.org

Reposted by James Le Houx

Dr Liam Perera @pereralj.bsky.social · 22d

EIS ice baby

New ideas can be found in the intersection between battery science and planetary science.

Myself and @thebeamline.bsky.social are exploring how ice microstructure will impact radar measurements on Europa using tomography and EIS.

#Europa #icymoons #planetaryscience #tomography

🧪

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James Le Houx @thebeamline.bsky.social · Sep 2

In-situ dark field X-ray microscopy of solid state batteries this week. Seriously challenging experiment, thank you to the whole team at ID03 @esrf.fr

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James Le Houx @thebeamline.bsky.social · Aug 19

This was a huge team effort, so massive thanks to my co-authors and the teams at @psich.bsky.social, ISIS Neutron and Muon Source, The Faraday Institution, and Diamond Light Source. Go read the paper!

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James Le Houx @thebeamline.bsky.social · Aug 19

By reinforcing that one part so well, we just forced the system to break somewhere else. The failure moved to the counter electrode, which cracked on the next cycle.

It's a powerful lesson: you can't just improve one piece of a battery. You have to think about the whole system. #HolisticDesign

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James Le Houx @thebeamline.bsky.social · Aug 19

Cell B (with the silver layer) was a different story. The Ag layer made the lithium plate beautifully. The interface was perfect, even at high currents. A total success!

...or so we thought.

4/6

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James Le Houx @thebeamline.bsky.social · Aug 19

As expected, Cell A (bare copper) failed fast. Lithium plated unevenly, creating stress that cracked the solid electrolyte.

3/6

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James Le Houx @thebeamline.bsky.social · Aug 19

We built two solid-state cells.

Cell A: Standard copper current collector

Cell B: Copper collector with a tiny 50nm silver layer

Then we watched them work (and fail) in 3D using synchrotron X-rays at @diamondlightsource.bsky.social 2/6

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James Le Houx @thebeamline.bsky.social · Aug 19

The classic problem with the weakest link is that when you fix it, you just create a new one.

We saw this happen in real-time with solid-state batteries. Our new preprint shows how fixing one interface just moves the failure to the next weakest spot. 1/6

Paper link: doi.org/10.26434/che...

Operando X-ray Computed Tomography Reveals the Role of Interfacial Nucleation Nanolayers in Suppressing Mechanical Failure in Zero-Excess Lithium All-Solid-State Batteries

Lithium metal (LM) and zero-excess lithium (ZE) anodes offer pathways to increase the energy density of all-solid-state batteries (ASSBs). We employ operando X-ray computed tomography (XCT) combined w...

doi.org

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James Le Houx @thebeamline.bsky.social · Aug 7

It's the same fundamental challenge: a growing tip penetrating a harder material. The method to map how roots navigate soil can now help us understand how dendrites cause catastrophic failure in batteries. 4/4

#TranslationalResearch #SoilScience #Biomimicry #SolidStateBatteries #EnergyStorage

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James Le Houx @thebeamline.bsky.social · Aug 7

But as a battery scientist, this is where it gets really exciting. While the article focuses on agriculture, the technique is a perfect demonstration of translational research. We can use it to understand a huge challenge: stopping dendrites in solid-state batteries. 3/4

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James Le Houx @thebeamline.bsky.social · Aug 7

To see this underground engineering, we took our experiment to the @diamondlightsource.bsky.social synchrotron. The article covers our work using dual X-ray techniques on the #DIAD beamline to visualise the forces at play. 2/4

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James Le Houx @thebeamline.bsky.social · Aug 7

What do solid-state batteries & plant roots have in common?

Excited to share our new article in @theconversation.com written with my collaborator Siul Ruiz. We dive into the powerful mechanics roots use to navigate tough soils, vital for our food security. 1/4
theconversation.com/natures-unde...

Nature’s underground engineers: how plant roots could save harvests from drought

Plant roots don’t just take from soil; they shape it.

theconversation.com

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James Le Houx @thebeamline.bsky.social · Jul 26

Pocket coffee for those 4am beamtimes

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James Le Houx @thebeamline.bsky.social · Jul 17

Means we can study architectured graphite, NMC, Na-ion Al-ion, and solid-state all in one experiment. Huge thank you to Dominic Spencer-Jolly, Emily Lu, Christoph Rau, and Shashi Marathe for making this possible.

James Le Houx @thebeamline.bsky.social · Jul 17

Pretty exciting beamtime at @diamondlightsource.bsky.social I13-2 this week. We're going from manual sample centering to a fully automated process with a Yasakawa arm, hitting 150 battery samples a day and swapping optics from nm to µm resolution.

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James Le Houx @thebeamline.bsky.social · Jul 4

A huge thank you to both for funding this research, and to Diamond Light Source and the peer review panel for allowing us the beamtime to make this happen

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James Le Houx @thebeamline.bsky.social · Jul 4

The method is v generic, so could be applied to hemp, how seaweeds anchor to the seabed, how worms burrow etc. etc. Anything that's pushing through soil structures

James Le Houx @thebeamline.bsky.social · Jul 4

Exactly! We're really interested in understanding precisely how they can do it. If we can learn that, we can breed crops with the same genetic advantage to act as 'pilot' crops for regenerative farming/rewilding. Plants that can break up tough/compacted soils and form biopore networks.

James Le Houx @thebeamline.bsky.social · Jul 3

How do plant roots push through hard soil? Our new paper in npj Biological Physics and Mechanics uses X-rays to watch it happen. This new view can help us breed more resilient crops for a changing climate.🌾 #SoilScience #Agriculture

tinyurl.com/5mdkrk3e @pereralj.bsky.social @tiinaroose.bsky.social

Coupled X-ray imaging/diffraction reveals soil mechanics during analogous root growth - npj Biological Physics and Mechanics

npj Biological Physics and Mechanics - Coupled X-ray imaging/diffraction reveals soil mechanics during analogous root growth

tinyurl.com

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James Le Houx @thebeamline.bsky.social · Jul 3

Paper now available for full explanation ;) www.nature.com/articles/s44...

Coupled X-ray imaging/diffraction reveals soil mechanics during analogous root growth - npj Biological Physics and Mechanics

npj Biological Physics and Mechanics - Coupled X-ray imaging/diffraction reveals soil mechanics during analogous root growth

www.nature.com

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James Le Houx @thebeamline.bsky.social · Apr 21

Well that's incredibly satisfying, new refactored code building and running a CI/CD pipeline in Github Actions. Only took 165 trys.....

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James Le Houx @thebeamline.bsky.social · Apr 16

Signs of life again....Watch this space

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James Le Houx @thebeamline.bsky.social · Apr 11

Harwell, home of the endangered bee orchid. Always impressed by the work of the conservationist team on site led by Bill Temple, looking forward to seeing them flower

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