Corrosion for can neutral cells is a known industry challenge without well-understood failure mechanisms or test procedures. In this presentation, we will explore the failure mechanisms associated with can neutral corrosion, the pros and cons for cell polarity selection, and the importance of designing for both electrical and corrosion protection.

This talk will go into safety related to solid state Li-metal batteries.

Advanced, high-energy, Li-ion batteries need advanced features to improve abuse tolerance and reduce the risk of thermal runaway. The Enovix stacked cell architecture, which uses a silicon anode, upends the conventional paradigm and enables both an increase in energy density, and a high level of abuse tolerance to reduce the risks of an internal short, due to its BrakeFlow technology. With BrakeFlow incorporated, instead of a sudden catastrophic release of energy, the battery is designed to discharge safely and slowly.

Conventional wisdom tells us that cobalt is required in high-energy electric vehicle batteries, but is it true? All battery companies are trying to reduce their cobalt usage in a stepwise fashion. TexPower EV Technologies, Inc. leapfrogs this iterative process with zero-cobalt battery technology that does not sacrifice energy, power, safety, or any other performance metrics. The future of EVs is longer range, more affordable and cobalt-free.

The quest for cheaper, safer, higher-density, and more resource-abundant energy storage has driven significant battery innovations. In the context of materials development for next-generation batteries, organic battery electrode materials have emerged as an exciting option complementary to inorganic materials. In this presentation, I will emphasize the unique advantages of organic battery materials in emerging beyond Li-ion battery technologies such as solid-state batteries, multivalent metal batteries, and aqueous batteries.

Despite safer battery material, battery thermal management could be a key to safer post lithium technology. Na0.53MnO2 & Na3V2(PO4)3/C based materials as cathode and coconut shell-derived hard carbon as anode were studied in this work. The safety-related parameters, including the heat generation during charging,  discharging, and thermal abuse tests, have been executed by the means of sophisticated calorimetry instruments.

This talk will go into sodium-ion batteries and their promise as a more affordable alternative. Sodium-ion safety will also be discussed.

The validity of improved safety often attributed to solid-state batteries has recently been investigated. Key findings indicate reaction pathways exist in SSBs which can release significant heat. That heat release may result in temperatures approaching, and in some cases exceeding those seen in thermal runaway of conventional Li-ion batteries. In this talk, characterization of abused SSB materials will be examined and correlated to differential scanning calorimetry heat flows.

Solid-state battery is a promising next-generation battery technology. However, Li-dendrite across the solid electrolyte layer is one major safety concern. Electrolyte and electrode materials can exhibit a broad distribution of capabilities to suppress Li-dendrite growth, especially through the new mechanism of dynamic voltage stability. The talk will focus on strategies to design materials and battery devices for enhanced safety against Li-dendrite at fast charge and discharge. A combined approach of material synthesis, battery test and characterization, and computational modeling and machine learning will be utilized for the design across atomistic, materials, and device levels. 

Complete solid-state lithium-ion batteries has attracted attention due to safety, high-energy density and higher operating voltages. We are working on surface-interface engineering and stabilizing battery materials such as Li-metal, solid electrolytes, and high-voltage cathode materials via cost effective and salable precursor vapor phase processing method. Here will present latest encouraging results and learning that will be helpful for both battery research community, as well as battery manufacturers.

Li-ion batteries are used in many industries, such as consumer electronics, electric vehicles, and internet-of-things. With the substantially increasing demand, sustainable battery technologies are desired. This talk explains several battery algorithms: adaptive charging, situational charging, context-based battery charging, etc. All algorithms extend battery longevity and require less battery replacement, thus contributing to sustainability enhancement.

Li-ion batteries are used in many industries, such as consumer electronics, electric vehicles, and internet-of-things. With the substantially increasing demand, sustainable battery technologies are desired. This talk explains several battery algorithms: adaptive charging, situational charging, context-based battery charging, etc. All algorithms extend battery longevity and require less battery replacement, thus contributing to sustainability enhancement.

Dynamic modeling, state estimation, and optimal charging control of Lithium-ion batteries are some of the primary challenges in advanced battery management. While model-based control and estimation algorithms have made a significant leap in the past decade, the integration of battery big data offers further insights into this highly-coupled and intricate electrochemical storage system. Mathematically, combining machine learning with physics is a trending approach for discovering unknown dynamics. This talk will highlight the application of physics-informed neural network and imitation learning in improving the real-time performance of batteries.

With increasing demands in application, balance between power and energy requirements at cell level is increasingly difficult to satisfy, particularly in respect of higher power. This work demonstrates hybridization of battery and EDLC in-electrode with active materials from both present in both electrodes, as opposed to one electrode from each as seen in lithium-ion capacitors, enabling the tuning of power and energy to application and also increasing in lifetime.

Thermal Runaway (TR) of LiBs is the key to safety. It involves multi-scale phenomena ranging from internal physic-chemical mechanisms to battery components including safety features (CID, pressure disk, vent) and further to thermal propagation. At IFPEN, a Multiphysics Multiscale model is developed to be able to simulate the cell behavior under different initiation events (overheating, overcharging, short circuiting). The impacts of chemistry, SOC, and aging are studied.

Lithium-ion batteries have long been confined within narrow temperature thresholds, limiting their effectiveness and safety. This talk will explore a potential future where lithium-ion cells are intentionally engineered for higher operating temperatures and so revolutionize battery safety. By delving into cutting-edge advancements like solid-state batteries, which inherently thrive at elevated temperatures, we contemplate the possibility of harnessing higher operating temperatures as a design advantage rather than a limitation. We will also discuss the role that next-generation thermal management systems could play to facilitate this future.

Li-ion batteries (LIBs) offer diverse benefits for sustainable energy storage; they have a high storage capacity for their size, preserve good charge/discharge cycling stability over long periods, and have minimal charge loss during storage. However, like any energy storage technology, LIBs are not impeccable. Over time, battery deterioration can lead to safety and performance issues that shouldn’t be underestimated. One of the main issues is the gas generation during cell cycling, resulting in cell bulging in pouch cells, high internal pressure in cells with rigid metal housing, electrode delamination, and de-contacting of active materials. Identification of degradation products is the first step towards safer, longer-lasting, higher performing and more easily recyclable LIBs. This knowledge will help to understand the mechanistic pathways of degradation and how they can be inhibited. On the other hand, lithium-based batteries have the potential to undergo thermal runaway, during which mixtures of hazardous gases are. In the current study, a series of cylindrical lithium-ion cells was exposed to abuse conditions (thermal) to investigate the composition of the released gas mixture. Mass spectrometry has been used to detect the evolved gases in the swollen cells (off-line analysis) and during cycling of lab-made cells (on-line analysis).. Recently, we have introduced a new coupling of the mass spectrometry with the accelerating rate calorimetry (ARC) to monitor the emitted gases during the venting and thermal runaway of different LIB types.

Innate risk of propagation due to thermal runaway inhibits Lithium-ion battery application to safety-critical systems. Key design elements are necessary to eliminate risk of propagation. Fault Tree Analysis (FTA) was applied to development of a Passive Propagation Resistant (PPR) Lithium-ion battery system to drive design via probabilistic risk assessment. By characterizing the phenomena associated with single cell failure and propagation fault modes, each cause was designed out by employing multiple layers of fault-tolerant defense, allowing for safe & reliable shipboard deployment.

Safety has historically been deprioritized, often in favor of cost, resulting in energy storage systems that cannot respond in time to prevent catastrophic explosions and fires. However, safe lithium chemistry-agnostic battery deployment and operation is achievable and essential (particularly in urban areas where electricity demands are the greatest and safety is paramount) to propel the clean energy storage solutions that will enable the successful transformation from fossil fuel dependence.