Europe seeks better lithium-sulphur batteries

This is another battery chemistry with great potential, but also a tendency to self-destruct and wear out.

“Specific issues with Li-S include mechanical degradation – including electrode cracking or loss of electrical connectivity – and [both] chemical and electrochemical degradation such as deposition of inactive resistive phases onto the anode, or current collector corrosion,” researcher Joe Fleming told Electronics Weekly.

Fleming is from Coventry University’s Centre for E-Mobility Research (CEMR) which, alongside the Centre for Process Innovation (CPI, which is spread across the UK), forms the UK wing of the project, called ‘Healing Bat’.

“The project aims to develop and implement self-healing concepts and materials in the key battery components used in conventional Li-S batteries, and extrapolate the designs and concepts to develop a new class of self-healing structural battery,” he said. “Furthermore, a toolbox, consisting of self-healing materials, relevant sensors and bespoke battery management systems” will be developed.

Coventry is to lead the creation instrumentation and communication electronics – this sensed data (plus modelling) will be used to study the effect of self-healing processes on battery performance.

Few further details of the Healing Bat research plan have yet to be revealed, said Fleming.

Healing Bat lead institution is the Technical University of Dortmund, and other members include :Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin, Technical University Delft, Paul Scherrer Institute, Idneo , Fundació Institut de Recerca en Energia de Catalunya, FI Group and SupraPolix.

Photo: Coventry in-cell instrumentation interface from an earlier project.