Performance enhancing defects have potential to cause battery failure

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Defects introduced into batteries to improve their performance could also lead to lithium-ion batteries failing, say researchers at Rice University in Texas.

New simulations by Rice materials scientist Ming Tang and graduate student Kaiqi Yang, detailed in the Journal of Materials Chemistry A, shows too much stress in widely used lithium iron phosphate cathodes can open cracks and quickly degrade batteries.

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Previous research at Rice showed that defects in the cathode could improve battery performance by up to two orders of magnitude by helping lithium move more efficiently. However, the lab's subsequent modelling study revealed that rapid charging and discharging can induce fracture in the defect-laden cathodes.

"The conventional picture is that lithium moves uniformly into the cathode, with a lithium-rich region that expands smoothly into the cathode's centre," said Tang, an assistant professor of materials science and nanoengineering at Rice's Brown School of Engineering.

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