Battery Degradation – Extending Battery Life
The overarching aim of the Degradation project is to develop a fundamental understanding of critical industry-relevant chemistries to identify strategies for supressing degradation. Using a suite of advanced characterisation and modelling techniques, the project focuses on lithium-ion batteries containing high nickel content, cobalt-free cathodes such as lithium manganese iron phosphate (LMFP) and lithium nickel oxide (LNO) and a range of anode chemistries from graphite, graphite/SiOx composites as well as next-generation anode-free systems.
This project is examining how environmental and internal battery stresses (such as high temperatures, charging and discharging rates) may degrade cells over time. Results will include the optimisation of battery materials, electrolytes and cells to extend battery life (and hence EV range) and reduce battery costs.
Despite the recent reduction in cost of lithium-ion batteries driven by mass manufacture, the widespread adoption of battery EVs is still hindered by cost and durability, with the lifetimes of the batteries falling below the consumer expectation for long-term applications such as transport.
Additionally, fast charging of battery EVs is crucial to help assuage range anxiety and provide the operational convenience required for mass adoption of the technology. Fast charging, however, can rapidly accelerate degradation and even trigger degradation mechanisms that are not present in ‘normal’ operating conditions. A key goal for the automotive industry is to understand more fully the causes and mechanisms of degradation to enable improved control and prediction of the state-of-health of battery systems.
The goal of the project is to develop insights into an in-depth understanding of degradation mechanisms that can be used directly by the automotive industry to extend lifetime and performance.
Timeline with milestones / deliverables (to March 2026)
- Identify the key stress-induced degradation processes and kinetics that occur in cells.
- Link the electrical signatures of degradation with specific chemical and materials processes so that they can be identified.
- Examine and understand the physicochemical mechanisms of degradation in high-nickel and cobalt-free positive electrode materials.
- Examine and understand the physicochemical mechanisms of degradation of graphite and anode free system. Emphasis is being placed on the interaction, or ‘crosstalk’, effects of positive electrode materials on causing or accelerating these pathways at the electrode/electrolyte interface.
- Define and investigate degradation mitigation strategies to extend battery life for different chemistries, such as the use of electrolyte additives, cycling protocols and active material coatings.
Project innovations
The project is providing a more complete understanding of the signatures of degradation, leading to increased lifetime and better prediction of failure, and accelerating the development of new battery chemistries through the holistic and coordinated efforts of the research. An ability to fully understand the causes of limited lifetime of lithium-ion batteries will place the UK at the forefront of the next generation of battery electric vehicle technology.
Duration
1 March 2018 – 31 March 2026
Project funding
£25.7 million
Principal Investigators
Professor Dame Clare Grey
University of Cambridge
Professor Louis Piper
University of Warwick
Project Leaders
Dr Rhodri Jervis
University College London
Dr Bethan Davies
Imperial College London
Project Manager
Dr Alex Kersting
University of Cambridge
University Partners
University of Cambridge (Co-Lead)
University of Warwick (Co-lead)
Imperial College London
Newcastle University
University College London
University of Oxford
University of Southampton
+ 8 Industrial Partners
