Thermodynamic Model for Substitutional Materials. Application to Lithiated Graphite, Spinel Manganese Oxide, Iron Phosphate, and Layered Nickel-Manganese-Cobalt Oxide

Abstract

We derive and implement a method to describe the thermodynamics of electrode materials based on a substitutional lattice model. To assess the utility and generality of the method, we compare model results with experimental data for a variety of electrode materials: lithiated graphite and layered nickel-manganese-cobalt oxide (Chevrolet Bolt Electric Vehicle negative and positive electrode materials, respectively), manganese oxide (in the positive electrodes of the Gen 1 and Gen 2 Chevrolet Volt Extended Range Electric Vehicle and the positive electrode of many high-power-density batteries), and iron phosphate (Gen 1 Chevrolet Spark Electric Vehicle positive electrode material and of immediate interest for 12 and 48 V applications). An early version of the model has been applied to lithiated silicon (Li-Si). As was found in the Li-Si study, the model enables one to quantitatively represent experimental data from these different electrode materials with a small number of parameters, and, in this sense, the approach is both general and efficient. An open question is the utility of controlled-potential vs. controlled-current experiments for the elucidation of the system thermodynamics. We provide commentary on this question, and we highlight other open questions throughout this work.