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Determination of battery stability with advanced diagnostics

Lamb, Joshua H.; Torres-Castro, Loraine T.; Orendorff, Christopher O.; Dufek, Eric J.; Walker, Lee K.; Ho, Chinh H.

Lithium ion batteries for use in battery electric vehicles (BEVs) has seen considerable expansion over the last several years. It is expected that market share and the total number of BEVs will continue to increase over coming years and that there will be changes in the environmental and use conditions for BEV batteries. Specifically aging of the batteries and exposure to an increased number of crash conditions presents a distinct possibility that batteries may be in an unknown state posing danger to the operator, emergency response personnel and other support personnel. The present work expands on earlier efforts to explore the ability to rapidly monitor using impedance spectroscopy techniques and characterize the state of different battery systems during both typical operations and under abusive conditions. The work has found that it is possible to detect key changes in performance for strings of up to four cells in both series and parallel configurations for both typical and abusive response. As a method the sensitivity for detecting change is enhanced for series configurations. For parallel configurations distinct changes are more difficult to ascertain, but under abusive conditions and for key frequencies it is feasible to use current rapid impedance techniques to identify change. The work has also found it feasible to use rapid impedance as an evaluation method for underload conditions, especially for series strings of cells.

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TYPE SAND Report YEAR 2017
OSTIDOI

Abuse Tolerance Improvements

Orendorff, Christopher O.; Nagasubramanian, Ganesan N.; Fenton, Kyle R.; Allcorn, Eric A.

As lithium-ion battery technologies mature, the size and energy of these systems continues to increase (> 50 kWh for EVs); making safety and reliability of these high energy systems increasingly important. While most material advances for lithium-ion chemistries are directed toward improving cell performance (capacity, energy, cycle life, etc.), there are a variety of materials advancements that can be made to improve lithium-ion battery safety. Issues including energetic thermal runaway, electrolyte decomposition and flammability, anode SEI stability, and cell-level abuse tolerance continue to be critical safety concerns. This report highlights work with our collaborators to develop advanced materials to improve lithium-ion battery safety and abuse tolerance and to perform cell-level characterization of new materials.

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TYPE Other Report YEAR 2015
OSTIDOI

Coating Strategies to Improve Lithium-ion Battery Safety

Travis, Jonathan T.; Orendorff, Christopher O.

This work investigated the effects of Al2O3 ALD coatings on the performance and thermal abuse tolerance of graphite based anodes and Li(NixMnyCoz)O2 (NMC) based cathodes. It was found that 5 cycles of Al2O3 ALD on the graphite anode increased the onset temperature of thermal runaway by approximately 20 °C and drastically reduced the anode’s contribution to the overall amount of heat released during thermal runaway. Although Al2O3 ALD improves the cycling stability of NMC based cathodes, the thermal abuse tolerance was not greatly improved. A series of conductive aluminum oxide/carbon composites were created and characterized as potential thicker protective coatings for use on NMC based cathode materials. A series of electrodes were coated with manganese monoxide ALD to test the efficacy of an oxygen scavenging coating on NMC based cathodes.

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TYPE SAND Report YEAR 2015
OSTIDOI

Failure propagation in multi-cell lithium ion batteries

Journal of Power Sources

Lamb, Joshua H.; Orendorff, Christopher O.; Steele, Leigh A.; Spangler, Scott W.

Traditionally, safety and impact of failure concerns of lithium ion batteries have dealt with the field failure of single cells. However, large and complex battery systems require the consideration of how a single cell failure will impact the system as a whole. Initial failure that leads to the thermal runaway of other cells within the system creates a much more serious condition than the failure of a single cell. This work examines the behavior of small modules of cylindrical and stacked pouch cells after thermal runaway is induced in a single cell. Cylindrical cells are observed to be less prone to propagate owing to the limited contact between neighboring cells. The electrical connectivity is found to be impactful as the 10S1P cylindrical cell module did not show failure propagation through the module, while the 1S10P module had an energetic thermal runaway consuming the module minutes after the initiation failure trigger. Modules built using pouch cells conversely showed the impact of strong heat transfer between cells. In this case, a large surface area of the cells was in direct contact with its neighbors, allowing failure to propagate through the entire battery within 60-80 s for all configurations (parallel or series) tested.

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TYPE Journal Article YEAR 2015
ScopusOSTI

Studies on the thermal breakdown of common Li-ion battery electrolyte components

Journal of the Electrochemical Society

Lamb, Joshua H.; Orendorff, Christopher O.; Roth, E.P.; Langendorf, Jill L.

While much attention is paid to the impact of the active materials on the catastrophic failure of lithium ion batteries, much of the severity of a battery failure is also governed by the electrolytes used, which are typically flammable themselves and can decompose during battery failure. The use of LiPF6 salt can be problematic as well, not only catalyzing electrolyte decomposition, but also providing a mechanism for HF production. This work evaluates the safety performance of the common components ethylene carbonate (EC), diethyl carbonate (DEC), dimethyl carbonate (DMC), and ethyl methyl carbonate (EMC) in the context of the gasses produced during thermal decomposition, looking at both the quantity and composition of the vapor produced. EC and DEC were found to be the largest contributors to gas production, both producing upwards of 1.5 moles of gas/mole of electrolyte. DMC was found to be relatively stable, producing very little gas regardless of the presence of LiPF6. EMC was stable on its own, but the addition of LiPF6 catalyzed decomposition of the solvent. While gas analysis did not show evidence of significant quantities of any acutely toxic materials, the gasses themselves all contained enough flammable components to potentially ignite in air.

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TYPE Journal Article YEAR 2015
ScopusOSTIDOI

Determination of battery stability with advanced diagnostics

Lamb, Joshua H.; Orendorff, Christopher O.; Christophersen, Jon P.

The increasing demand of lithium ion batteries for vehicle electrification is changing the typical use conditions that batteries may see. Over time, batteries may develop defects that are difficult to detect with traditional measurements. It is also possible that batteries may be left in an unknown state after failure of the monitoring system, loss of communication, or a potentially damaging event (such as an auto accident). It is therefore useful to explore other monitoring and interrogation methods that can better determine the stability of a battery in an unknown state. This work explores the use of electrochemical impedance spectroscopy as a method to determine the stability of batteries by observing changes in the complex impedance measurement as the cell is exposed to abusive conditions. Very dramatic changes to the internal resistance were observed when single cells were exposed to abusive conditions, suggesting that even single frequency impedance measurements could be effective with single cells. However tests on three cell series and parallel strings yielded smaller changes, primarily to the charge transfer resistance, showing that complex impedance measurements are more appropriate as the system increases in complexity. A rapid impedance tool developed at Idaho National Laboratory was tested and compared to traditional potentiostat tools as well. This was shown to yield similar data to the traditional tools, providing a potential method for continuous monitoring of a battery system. It was observed, however, that shifts in the data are difficult to detect in very transient systems.

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TYPE SAND Report YEAR 2014
OSTIDOI

Propagation testing multi-cell batteries

Orendorff, Christopher O.

Propagation of single point or single cell failures in multi-cell batteries is a significant concern as batteries increase in scale for a variety of civilian and military applications. This report describes the procedure for testing failure propagation along with some representative test results to highlight the potential outcomes for different battery types and designs.

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TYPE SAND Report YEAR 2014
OSTIDOI

Potential use of battery packs from NCAP tested vehicles

Lamb, Joshua H.; Orendorff, Christopher O.

Several large electric vehicle batteries available to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration are candidates for use in future safety testing programs. The batteries, from vehicles subjected to NCAP crashworthiness testing, are considered potentially damaged due to the nature of testing their associated vehicles have been subjected to. Criteria for safe shipping to Sandia is discussed, as well as condition the batteries must be in to perform testing work. Also discussed are potential tests that could be performed under a variety of conditions. The ultimate value of potential testing performed on these cells will rest on the level of access available to the battery pack, i.e. external access only, access to the on board monitoring system/CAN port or internal electrical access to the battery. Greater access to the battery than external visual and temperature monitoring would likely require input from the battery manufacturer.

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TYPE SAND Report YEAR 2013
OSTIDOI

Study of novel nonflammable electrolytes in Sandia-built Li-ion cells

Nagasubramanian, Ganesan N.; Orendorff, Christopher O.

Even after decades of research, Li-ion cells still lack thermal stability. A number of approaches, including adding fire retardants or fluoro compounds to the electrolyte to mitigate fire, have been investigated. These additives improved the thermal stability of the cells (only marginally) but not enough for use in transportation applications. Recent investigations indicate that hydrofluoro-ethers are promising as nonflammable additives1. We describe here the results of our studies on electrolytes containing the hydrofluoro-ethers in cells fabricated at Sandia. In particular, we are investigating two solvents as nonflammable additives. These are: (1) 2-trifluoromethyl-3-methoxyperfluoropentane {l_brace}TMMP{r_brace} and (2) 2-trifluoro-2-fluoro-3-difluoropropoxy-3-difluoro-4-fluoro-5-trifluoropentane {l_brace}TPTP{r_brace}. These electrolytes not only have good thermal stability compared to the conventional electrolytes but respectable ionic conductivity. Sandia made 18650 cells successfully completed the formational cycle. The impedance behavior is typical of Li-ion cells.

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TYPE Conference YEAR 2010
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A wet chemistry approach to sub-micron removable flip chip interconnects

Proceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering

Orendorff, Christopher O.; Barker, Joy M.; Rowen, Adam M.; Yelton, W.G.; Arrington, Christian L.; Gillen, J.R.

Higher performance is the main driver in the integrated circuit (IC) market, but along with added function comes the cost of increased input/output connections and larger die sizes. Space saving approaches aimed at solving these challenges includes two technologies; 3D stacking (3D-ICs) and flip chip assemblies. Emerging ICs require sub-micron scale interconnects which include vias for 3D-ICs and bump bonds for flip chips. Photolithographic techniques are commonly used to prepare templates followed by metal vapor deposition to create flip chip bump bonds. Both the lithography step and the metal properties required for bump bonding contribute to limiting this approach to a minimum bump size of ∼10 μm. Here, we present a wet chemistry approach to fabricating uniform bump bonds of tunable size and height down to the nanoscale. Nanosphere lithography (NSL), a "soft" lithographic technique, is used to create a bump bond template or mask for nanoscale bumps. Electrochemical deposition is also used through photoresist templates to create uniform bump bonds across large area wafers or dies. This template approach affords bumps with tunable diameters from 100s of nanometers to microns (allowing for tunable interconnect pitch and via diameters) while the use of constant current electoplating gives uniform bump height over large areas (>1 cm2).

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TYPE Conference YEAR 2008
ScopusOSTI

Exploiting interfacial water properties for desalination and purification applications

Cygan, Randall T.; Jiang, Ying B.; Alam, Todd M.; Brinker, C.J.; Bunker, B.C.; Leung, Kevin L.; Nenoff, T.M.; Nyman, M.; Ockwig, Nathan O.; Orendorff, Christopher O.; Rempe, Susan R.; Singh, Seema S.; Criscenti, Louise C.; Stevens, Mark J.; Thurmer, Konrad T.; Van Swol, Frank; Varma, Sameer V.; Crozier, Paul C.; Feibelman, Peter J.; Houston, Jack E.; Huber, Dale L.

A molecular-scale interpretation of interfacial processes is often downplayed in the analysis of traditional water treatment methods. However, such an approach is critical for the development of enhanced performance in traditional desalination and water treatments. Water confined between surfaces, within channels, or in pores is ubiquitous in technology and nature. Its physical and chemical properties in such environments are unpredictably different from bulk water. As a result, advances in water desalination and purification methods may be accomplished through an improved analysis of water behavior in these challenging environments using state-of-the-art microscopy, spectroscopy, experimental, and computational methods.

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TYPE SAND Report YEAR 2008
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Active assembly for large-scale manufacturing of integrated nanostructures

Bachand, George B.; Orendorff, Christopher O.; McKenzie, Bonnie B.; Bunker, B.C.; Spoerke, Erik D.

Microtubules and motor proteins are protein-based biological agents that work cooperatively to facilitate the organization and transport of nanomaterials within living organisms. This report describes the application of these biological agents as tools in a novel, interdisciplinary scheme for assembling integrated nanostructures. Specifically, selective chemistries were used to direct the favorable adsorption of active motor proteins onto lithographically-defined gold electrodes. Taking advantage of the specific affinity these motor proteins have for microtubules, the motor proteins were used to capture polymerized microtubules out of suspension to form dense patterns of microtubules and microtubule bridges between gold electrodes. These microtubules were then used as biofunctionalized templates to direct the organization of functionalized nanocargo including single-walled carbon nanotubes and gold nanoparticles. This biologically-mediated scheme for nanomaterials assembly has shown excellent promise as a foundation for developing new biohybrid approaches to nanoscale manufacturing.

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TYPE SAND Report YEAR 2007
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89 Results
89 Results