Effect of operation conditions on simulated low-earth orbit cycle-life testing of commercial lithium-ion polymer cells

Abstract Laminated lithium-ion polymer cells with gel electrolytes and laminate-film package are expected to replace the conventional alkaline batteries for space application due to their high energy density and high flexibility in configuration. To facilitate this, we assessed the effect of operation conditions, charge rate and taper voltage, on cycle-life testing of commercial lithium-ion polymer cells by simulating a satellite's LEO operation with 40% DOD profile in this work. So far, 6000 cycles have been completed. A lower charge rate was found to be promising for long-term satellite operation. Impedance analysis disclosed a little change in cell internal impedance with charge rate. This encouraged us to attribute the poor cycling performance at high charge rate to excessive lithium-ion exhaust in electrode surface-film formation due to a longer holding duration at taper voltage. The taper voltage was also found to affect charge performance of lithium-ion polymer cells. Good cycling performance, such as the minimum current at the end of the charge and the maximum voltage at the end of the discharge were observed when using taper voltage range from 4.05 to 4.10 V. Theoretical analysis deduced that low current at the end of the charge correlated to (1) a low cell internal impedance and (2) a large slope in the capacity–voltage charge curve measured at a low rate. We further evaluated cell cycling behavior at a low rate and indeed observed the largest slope of capacity–voltage charge curve at voltages ranging from 4.05 to 4.10 V.

[1]  Allen J. Bard,et al.  Electrochemical Methods: Fundamentals and Applications , 1980 .

[2]  Koichi Tanaka,et al.  Initial Reaction in the Reduction Decomposition of Electrolyte Solutions for Lithium Batteries , 2000 .

[3]  Marc Doyle,et al.  Computer Simulations of the Impedance Response of Lithium Rechargeable Batteries , 2000 .

[4]  G. Pistoia,et al.  Lithium batteries : new materials, developments, and perspectives , 1994 .

[5]  Ralph E. White,et al.  Characterization of Commercially Available Lithium-Ion Batteries , 1998 .

[6]  J. Weiner,et al.  Fundamentals and applications , 2003 .

[7]  S. P. Vukson,et al.  Lithium-ion testing for spacecraft applications , 2003 .

[8]  Doron Aurbach,et al.  Solid‐State Electrochemical Kinetics of Li‐Ion Intercalation into Li1 − x CoO2: Simultaneous Application of Electroanalytical Techniques SSCV, PITT, and EIS , 1999 .

[9]  K. Sawai,et al.  Factors Affecting Rate Capability of Graphite Electrodes for Lithium-Ion Batteries , 2003 .

[10]  Marshall C. Smart,et al.  Lithium batteries for aerospace applications: 2003 Mars Exploration Rover , 2003 .

[11]  P. Ross,et al.  The Chemical Reaction of Diethyl Carbonate with Lithium Intercalated Graphite Studied by X-Ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy , 2002 .

[12]  Jean-Marie Tarascon,et al.  Development of Reliable Three-Electrode Impedance Measurements in Plastic Li-Ion Batteries , 2001 .

[13]  Yoshitsugu Sone,et al.  In Situ Investigation of the Volume Change in Li-ion Cell with Charging and Discharging Satellite Power Applications , 2004 .

[14]  J. Barker,et al.  An electrochemical investigation into the lithium insertion properties of LixCoO2 , 1996 .

[15]  James R. Wertz,et al.  Space Mission Analysis and Design , 1992 .

[16]  YoungJung Chang,et al.  Electrochemical Impedance Analysis for Lithium Ion Intercalation into Graphitized Carbons , 2000 .

[17]  B. Ratnakumar,et al.  Electrolytes for low-temperature lithium batteries based on ternary mixtures of aliphatic carbonates , 1999 .