Lithium-ion battery raw material characterization is imperative to understand the structure and quality of the
materials being manufactured into battery cells. This is vital to ensure newly developed batteries can perform to
their potential during their entire lifetime, and that new battery formulations are assembled and tested in the most
effective way. However, characterization of some battery raw materials, such as the active particles and binder, can
prove challenging because of their small size, chemical composition and density, and their varying morphologies.
Characterization in 3D provides a holistic interpretation of their structure, rather than in 1D or 2D alone.
Furthermore, as metrics such as tortuosity can only be measured in 3D, the 3D arrangement of cathode particles in
assembled electrodes plays a critical role in dictating battery performance and ageing properties. Until now, the use
of conventional 3D X-ray Computed Tomography, with limited spatial resolution and imperfect image quality (noise),

Presented here is a new workflow for the 3D characterization of battery cathode foils (cathode particles, binder,
voids) using Versa X-ray Microscope (XRM) technology and associated novel techniques. Performed are multi-scale
and targeted region of interest (ROI) scans guided by ZEISS ZEN navx software and further enhancement utilising
the high resolution 40×-Prime objective, followed by AI-based reconstruction and denoising using ZEISS DeepRecon
Pro software. Also performed are subsequent particle analyses and quantification of digitally segmented data to
demonstrate what useful information can be obtained from high resolution 3D XRM imaging. This workflow serves
as a guide for the characterization of cathodes at high resolution using laboratory-based Versa XRMs.