Understanding the ageing of rechargeable batteries

There is a huge demand for improving battery technology, mainly in the fields of global energy supply, electric vehicles and also portable consumer electronics:

The expansion of renewable energy sources like photovoltaics and wind power must be accompanied by an expansion of energy storage facilities, some of which will be in the form of large battery packs that can store electrical energy when it is in over-supply and quickly liberate it when there is increased demand.

More and more cars, lorries and buses will be equipped with electric motors and hence need large, reliable and safe batteries. These make up a large fraction of the weight and the cost of electric vehicles.

Many household items and consumer electronics have been miniaturised within the last two decades and so have become portable, and for their use rechargeable batteries are needed.

This means better, safer and cheaper rechargeable batteries of different sizes will have to be developed, ranging from button cells for small electronic appliances to industrial-scale big battery packs in power stations for the national grid. There is thus both the drive to develop more efficient battery technologies and to better integrate series of rechargeable batteries into stacks for large power supplies. This work will help address both issues.