A Cahn-Hilliard-type theory for species diffusion coupled with large elastic-plastic deformations

We develop a unified framework of balance laws and thermodynamically consistent constitutive equations which couple Cahn-Hilliard-type species diffusion with large elastic-plastic deformations of a body, and account for the swelling and phase segregation caused by the diffusing species. A potential, technologically important, area of application of the theory is in the chemo-mechanical analysis of the evolution of large stresses which develop because of the volume changes associated with the diffusion of lithium ions in the active electrode particles of lithium-ion batteries during charge-discharge cycles. (C)2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.