Fast charging of commercial lithium-ion battery without lithium plating

Rapid charging of lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) enables the devices or systems powered by the batteries to provide services at faster rates or higher frequencies. However, fast charging of LIBs can cause lithium plating, resulting in rapid capacity degradation and even thermal runaway or fire in the batteries. Fast charging and lithium plating in a LIB are anode-centric events. Therefore, an anode-centric electrochemical model is critical for deriving a fast charging protocol for LIBs. In this work, we developed an electric circuit model for the negative electrode using tests conducted on laboratory three-electrode lithium-ion cells, used the model to estimate the fast charging current, and compared the fast charging current derived using the model to the fast charging current obtained from measurement. The fast charging current obtained using the model agrees well with the measured fast charging current. Furthermore, we implemented this fast charging protocol on commercial 18650 LIBs for 350 cycles using custom-built charging hardware and software and achieved an 80 % state of charge in 29 min with acceptable temperature rise. The cell aging analysis revealed no significant capacity degradation nor lithium plating on the anode surface, as the protocol explicitly imposes control to protect the battery from lithium plating.

Automated summary

An electric circuit model for the negative electrode was developed and used to derive a fast charging protocol that effectively prevents lithium plating. Experimental results showed that the protocol enables efficient and safe fast charging of the batteries.