Effect of Porosity Distribution on Intercalation-Induced Stresses and Plating Reaction in Li-Ion Battery

Detailed models that incorporate electrochemical, transport, and thermodynamic processes along with the geometry of the underlying system can be used to predict, monitor and control the internal states of a battery. The porous electrode Pseudo-2 dimensional (P2D) model (1) is one such modeling framework which gives excellent insights into the workings of lithium-ion battery with reasonable computational cost.

 While various factors (thickness of electrode and current collector, particle radius, filler fractions, porosity etc.) can be varied to get the optimal battery design, here we will focus on the porosity distribution in anode and its effect on battery performance especially on the factors that affect safety and capacity fade (e.g. plating side reaction and intercalation-induced stresses etc.). Porosity and tortuosity are critical parameters for battery performance as they affect reaction rates and transport processes in various ways (e.g. local surface area, overall diffusivity and conductivities of solid phase and electrolyte phase).

First design optimization (porosity and thickness) for lithium ion battery can be traced back to the work done by Prof. Newman using reaction zone model (2). Work on optimal porosity distribution considering ohmic drop has been done by Ramadesigan et. al. (3). This presentation will focus on effect of porosity distribution on energy capacity, power rating, intercalation-induced stresses and lithium plating side reactions at various temperatures. The nonlinear dependence reaction rate and transport processes on potential, concentration and temperature makes the analytical treatment of porosity distribution very difficult, hence numerical simulation are performed to assess the performance of lithium ion battery  with porosity distribution using P2D model.   

Anode is vulnerable to various capacity fade mechanics like intercalation-induced stresses (4), lithium plating (5, 6), SEI formation (7) etc., especially at the separator-anode interface. This presentation will also focus on effect of porosity distribution on capacity fade at different location within the anode.

Acknowledgements

The work presented herein was funded in part by the Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E), U.S. Department of Energy, under Award Number DE-AR0000275.

References

1.             M. Doyle, T. F. Fuller and J. Newman, J. Electrochem. Soc., 140, 1526 (1993).

2.             J. Newman, J. Electrochem. Soc., 142, 97 (1995).

3.             V. Ramadesigan, R. N. Methekar, F. Latinwo, R. D. Braatz and V. R. Subramanian, J. Electrochem. Soc., 157, A1328 (2010).

4.             B. Suthar, P. W. C. Northrop, R. D. Braatz and V. R. Subramanian, J. Electrochem. Soc., 161, F3144 (2014).

5.             R. D. Perkins, A. V. Randall, X. Zhang and G. L. Plett, J. Power Sources, 209, 318 (2012).

6.             P. W. C. Northrop, B. Suthar, V. Ramadesigan, S. Santhanagopalan, R. D. Braatz and V. R. Subramanian, J. Electrochem. Soc., 161, E3149 (2014).

7.             M. T. Lawder, B. Suthar, P. W. C. Northrop, S. De, C. M. Hoff, O. Leitermann, M. L. Crow, S. Santhanagopalan and V. R. Subramanian, Proceedings of the IEEE, 102, 1014 (2014).