Advanced Characterization, Theory and Mechanisms of Processes in Rechargeable Batteries Across Length Scales

Although performance and durability are critical requirements for advanced batteries if they are to be economically viable, present-day models cannot predict battery life and performance except by extrapolating from experiments on similar battery chemistries and architectures run under similar conditions. This critical situation exists because of the lack of a fundamental understanding of most battery operating and failure mechanisms. For example, except in extreme cases, we have little ability to predict which of the many degradation mechanisms that have been observed or proposed are likely to be operative in any particular environments, especially for the completely new battery chemistries and formats that are now being demonstrated in laboratories. Similarly, whether or not a particular new material performs as hoped can generally be determined only with empirical tests. As a result, designing batteries is a highly empirical process, where the chosen solution is often simply to greatly overdesign the battery, a very expensive approach. A new paradigm is required to design new stable anode and cathode materials to provide electrochemical cells with high voltage, high energy, high power, and long lifetime at a competitive manufacturing cost. Coordinated efforts in fundamental research and advanced engineering are needed to identify new materials, electrode architectures and battery manufacturing technologies for the radical improvements in energy and power densities of chemical energy storage systems.

The ability to address fundamental questions related to advanced electrochemical energy storage devices relies critically on the development and application of novel characterization tools with increased spatial, energy, and temporal resolution. The development of analytical tools that have high sensitivity and cover the wide time scales of processes associated with the battery system operation modes has the potential to revolutionize the field. Theoretical and experimental techniques that can provide fundamental understanding of electron and charge transfer processes and mechanisms by which ions interact with electrode materials, interfacial phenomena are of great interest. Approaches that combine multiple techniques to provide multi-dimensional analysis can reveal the complex, interdependent processes that occur at electrodes, electrolytes, and the interfaces.

Fundamental models that are tackling interface chemistry and intraparticle processes, with transport and mechanics treated at atomic, nanometer, and micrometer scales are also needed. Advanced models that are taking advantage of new microstructural data that are now replacing homogenized models of battery electrodes and separators are of particular interest. These approaches will allow, for the first time, accurate predictions of cell life and performance without appealing to empirical fits. The goal of this Conference is to foster these new efforts to elucidate fundamental chemical, transport, electrical, and physical processes that can help build and verify improved models to predict battery performance and life, for both conventional Li batteries and for entirely new kinds of rechargeable batteries.