Understanding Degradation to Advance Lithium-Ion Battery Performance
FARADAY INSIGHTS - ISSUE 10: MARCH 2021 Why Batteries Fail and How to Improve Them: Understanding Degradation to Advance Lithium-Ion Battery Performance Melanie Loveridge and Martin Dowson, Warwick Manufacturing Group, University of Warwick Fundamental research on lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) dates to the 1970s, with their successful commercialisation delivered by Sony in 1991. Since then, LIBs have revolutionised the world of portable electronics, owing to their high energy density and long lifespan. Whilst LIB uptake initially powered small devices, they are now enabling global growth in electric vehicles (EVs), as well as having an increasing presence in new areas such as grid storage. Whilst LIBs will continue to lead electrification in multiple sectors, there are still requirements for improvements in lifetime, performance and safety. To achieve these researchers need to better understand – and find ways to mitigate – the many causes of battery degradation. Introduction Battery degradation is a collection of events that leads to loss of performance over time, impairing the ability of the battery In 2021, the battery industry will mark the 30th anniversary to store charge and deliver power. It is a successive and of a remarkable scientific invention that led to great complex set of dynamic chemical and physical processes, commercial success, and the awarding of the 2019 Nobel slowly reducing the amount of mobile lithium ions or charge Prize in Chemistry: the rechargeable lithium-ion battery. carriers. To visualise battery degradation, it is useful to first Three decades of performance improvements have consider what cells2 are composed of. Figure 1 represents occurred because of innovative research, with enhanced a simplified view of a typical battery cell, i.e., two opposing manufacturing efficiency bringing about mass-market electrodes impregnated by an electrolyte solvent and penetration.
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