2024/12/09 by Alexis Geslin, Le Xu, Devi Ganapathi +3 · 1 voice
Engineering · #Advanced Battery Materials and Technologies #Advanced Battery Technologies Research #Advancements in Battery Materials
paper · pdf · doi:10.1038/s41560-024-01675-8
openalex publication_date 2024/12/09 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
Laboratory ageing campaigns elucidate the complex degradation behaviour of most technologies. In lithium-ion batteries, such studies aim to capture realistic ageing mechanisms to optimize cell chemistries and designs as well as to engineer reliable battery management systems. In this study, we systematically compared dynamic discharge profiles representative of electric vehicle driving to the well-accepted constant current profiles. Surprisingly, we found that dynamic discharge enhances lifetime substantially compared with constant current discharge. Specifically, for the same average current and voltage window, varying the dynamic discharge profile led to an increase of up to 38% in equivalent full cycles at end of life. Explainable machine learning revealed the importance of both low-frequency current pulses and time-induced ageing under these realistic discharge conditions. This work quantifies the importance of evaluating new battery chemistries and designs with realistic load profiles, highlighting the opportunities to revisit our understanding of ageing mechanisms at the chemistry, material and cell levels. Lithium-ion batteries degrade in complex ways. This study shows that cycling under realistic electric vehicle driving profiles enhances battery lifetime by up to 38% compared with constant current cycling, underscoring the need for realistic loads to capture ageing mechanisms.