State-of-the-art Battery Cycle Life Extension

The ever-growing demand for energy storage, especially with high density and low-cost, has both academia and industry research communities working hard to develop and optimize energy storage technologies. Among the top energy storage technologies are Lithium metal batteries (LMBs) which have an exceptionally high specific capacity (3860 mA h g?1) in comparison to that of the conventional graphite-based LiC6 batteries (372 mA h g?1). In spite of these advantages, uncontrollable dendritic Li growth and limited coulombic efficiency during the charging process hinders the practical applications of LMBs. In response to this challenge, a myriad of engineering strategies have been developed to ensure the largest usable capacity, longest cycle-life and dendrite-free systems. Pulse charging has a great potential for inhibiting dendrite growth, thereby increases the likelihood for the development of practical LMBs. Gbatteries wishes to gain insight on state-of-the-art battery operational dynamics and degradation mechanisms. Therefore, during the proposed project, the Post-doc will research the optimum charging profiles that mitigate dendrite growth and extend the battery’s cycle life. Additionally, they will develop and customize an electrolytic cell that will allow operando dendrite growth observations during cycling to have real-time feedback without having to disassemble the cell.

Faculty Supervisor:

Elena Baranova

Student:

Mohamed Seif Eddine Houache

Partner:

GBatteries Energy Canada Inc.

Discipline:

Engineering - chemical / biological

Sector:

Professional, scientific and technical services

University:

University of Ottawa