Invited Presentation: Holistic Approach to Battery Materials Innovation

Research and development of materials for lithium ion secondary batteries requires thinking across multiple disciplines and levels of complexity. The most important factor to consider is the interaction of materials in a battery cell during operation.

New active materials for the cathode may have an impact on the functionality of electrolyte, binder, and separator and might even mirror to the anode side of the cell. This can be problematic because it is time consuming to adapt other materials to e.g. a new cathode material. On the other hand it offers the chance early on to develop highly efficient optimized cell chemistries in parallel by taking possible interactions into account. A detailed understanding of cell design is a prerequisite for that challenging task. Furthermore the quality of electrode tapes and finally the test cell is crucial to distinguishing real effects from artefacts.

Research and development on high voltage cathode materials and respective electrolyte systems might serve as an example for a holistic approach. In addition to existing cell chemistries like lithium ion batteries, such an approach is of utmost importance for new cell chemistries like lithium/sulfur based systems.

In a holistic approach it is not sufficient to work only empirically. For a complete understanding, an approach from fundamental science on a molecular level to empirical development regarding cell design and resulting interaction of materials is required. A deep and scientifically profound understanding of structure / property relationship is a must. One part of that holistic approach can be accomplished by strong and trustful cooperation models of academic and industry research partners that allow open exchange of information or by industry on campus cooperation models.