Effects of Pulse Current Charging on the Aging Performance of Commercial Cylindrical Lithium Ion Batteries

Woongchul Choi,Seunghun Lee,Wonil Cho,Vandung Do

doi:10.3390/app11114918

Woongchul Choi, Seunghun Lee + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/app11114918

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Abstract

Rapid development of electronic devices, ranging from personal communication devices to electric mobility solutions, has increased demand for energy storage devices not only in the production volume but also in the product functionality. Among many functional requirements including energy capacity, safety, and short recharge time, one of the major limitations is the short charging time while maintaining the designed capacity. However, even with the most updated lithium-ion battery (LIB) technology, it is well known that fast charging with a high current rate would reduce the lifetime of batteries significantly. Recently, among the many approaches to improve the quick charging performance, a pulse current charging method while keeping the total amount of energy has demonstrated a successful fast recharging of LIB without significantly degrading the battery capacity. The essence of the idea is to stop charging in the middle stage to provide a relaxation period instead of continuously charging at a high current rate. In this study, a comparative study between a conventional charging method with 3C current rate (equivalent to 20 min of charging time) and a pulse current charging with 6C current rate (10 min of charging and 10 min of relaxation time) was carried out. While the conventional charging method showed that the capacity was maintained up to about 200 cycles, the pulse current charging method revealed that the capacity was maintained for more than 450 cycles with a Coulombic efficiency of nearly 100%.

Highlights

The appearance of the commercial lithium-ion battery (LIB) in 1991 [1] has opened a new era for the boom in electronic and mobile devices, leading to the participation in social networks as well as the electrification of automobiles
The LIB has become an essential part of smartphones as well as electric vehicles (EVs), helping to increase human connection, expand the capabilities of electronic devices, and, eventually, enable the reduction of the use of fossil fuels
With the dire concerns about climate changes due to greenhouse gas emissions from the combustion engine vehicles [2], EV has become a promising solution to replace the conventional vehicles with the support of the LIB [3]

Summary

Introduction

The appearance of the commercial lithium-ion battery (LIB) in 1991 [1] has opened a new era for the boom in electronic and mobile devices, leading to the participation in social networks as well as the electrification of automobiles. In the current research, even though the repetitive charging and discharging were performed only within a portion (20–50% SOC) of the total battery capacity, the capacity decrease and the increase in charging start voltage (10–100th cycle, 0.185 V) clearly revealed the limitation of high C-rate constant charging on typical lithium ion batteries.

Results

Conclusion