A smart Li-ion battery with self-sensing capabilities for enhanced life and safety

Accurate monitoring and prediction of the operating status of Li-ion batteries (LiBs) are essential for enhancing the longevity and safety of LiB-powered applications. In contrast to conventional battery management strategies that rely solely on voltage, current, and temperature at module level, we present a smart Li-ion cell with an integrated fiber Bragg grating (FBG) optical fiber sensor that enables simultaneous measurement of temperature, force, and displacement at the cell level with a simple beam structure. The Li-ion smart battery sensor scheme realizes the synchronous monitoring of battery mechanical, electrical and thermal multi-physics parameters. We demonstrate that monitoring force is beneficial for enhancing cell life and safety. Specifically, the evolution of peak force upon cycling correlates linearly with the capacity fade, making the force signal a useful state-of-health indicator. Further, the change in cell force is tens of seconds earlier than the change in cell temperature under nail penetration and thermal abuse tests, exhibiting enormous potential for early detection of battery safety incidents, using the Li-ion smart battery scheme, we realize the quantitative description of the evolution of battery structure. By the Li-ion smart battery, it has the ability to improve the quality, reliability and service life of the battery.

Automated summary

This study presents a smart Li-ion battery sensor scheme with an integrated fiber Bragg grating (FBG) optical fiber sensor, enabling simultaneous measurement of temperature, force, and displacement at the cell level. The scheme realizes synchronous monitoring of battery mechanical, electrical, and thermal parameters, and has the potential for enhancing cell life and safety.