Chemical Short-Range Disorder Promises to Increase Battery Energy Storage – Decreases Charging Time

The cycle life of rechargeable lithium-ion batteries is crucial during the energy transition, but their layered oxide electrodes become unstable during charging, leading to a decrease in their cycle life. To address this, scientists have introduced chemical short-range disorder into the electrode material, which has been proven to improve their structural stability with longer cycle life and shorter charging times.

With the increasing availability of renewable energy, rechargeable batteries are an essential component of the energy transition. Li-ion batteries are one of the most potent and widely used types, their atomic structure can become unstable during charging, which can negatively impact the battery cycle life.

To address this issue, the ‘Storage of Electrochemical Energy’ group at TU Delft conducted a study and introduced chemical short-range disorder to the layered oxide used as cathode material through an improved synthesis method, which made it more stable during battery use.

The battery’s capacity retention was almost doubled after 200 charging/discharging cycles due to improved structural stability. Additionally, the chemical short-range disorder increased the charge transfer in the electrode, resulting in shorter charging times. The team demonstrated these advantages for well-established commercial cathodes such as lithium cobalt oxide (LiCoO2) and lithium nickel manganese cobalt oxide (NMC811).

The results may indicate that a new generation of Li-ion batteries could be developed with lower manufacturing costs and less CO2 emissions during their lifetime. The team is set to further explore the possibility of using similar material design principles to build cathodes from less abundant raw materials, unlike cobalt and nickel, which are considered important energy sources. Marnix Wagemaker, senior author of the paper, recommends reducing the use of these materials in batteries.

Reference: “Chemical short-range disorder in lithium oxide cathodes” by Qidi Wang, Zhenpeng Yao, Jianlin Wang, Hao Guo, Chao Li, Dong Zhou, Xuedong Bai, Hong Li, Baohua Li, Marnix Wagemaker and Chenglong Zhao, 8 May 2024, Nature. DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-07362-8