• Journal of Electrochemical Science and Technology
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.361-368
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• 2023

In lithium-sulfur (Li-S) batteries, encapsulation of sulfur in activated carbon (AC) materials is a promising strategy for preventing the dissolution of lithium polysulfide into electrolytes and enhancing cycle life, because instead of solid-liquid-solid reactions, quasi-solid-state (QSS) reactions occur in the AC micropores. While a high weight fraction of sulfur in S/AC composites is essential for achieving a high energy density of Li-S cells, the deterioration mechanisms under such conditions are still unclear. In this study, we report the deterioration mechanisms during charge-discharge cycling when the discharge products overflow from the AC. Analysis using scanning electron microscopy and energy-dispersive X-ray spectrometry confirms that the sulfur in the S/AC composites migrates outside the AC as cycling progresses, and it is barely present in the AC after 20 cycles, which corresponds to the capacity decay of the cell. Impedance analysis clearly shows that the electrical resistance of the S/AC composite and the charge-transfer resistance of QSS reactions significantly increase as a result of sulfur migration. On the other hand, the charge-discharge cycling performance under limited-capacity conditions, where the discharge products are encapsulated inside the AC, is extremely stable. These results reveal the degradation mechanism of a Li-S cell with micro-porous carbon and provide crucial insights into the design of a S/AC composite cathode and its operating conditions needed to achieve stable cycling performance.

• Journal of Electrochemical Science and Technology
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.29-34
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• 2012

The structural changes of $Li_{1-x}Ni_{0.5}Co_{0.2}Mn_{0.3}O_2$ cathode material for lithium ion battery during the first charge was investigated in comparison with $Li_{1-x}Ni_{0.8}Co_{0.15}Al_{0.05}O_2$ using a synchrotron based in situ X-ray diffraction technique. The structural changes of these two cathode materials show similar trend during first charge: an expansion along the c-axis of the unit cell with contractions along the a- and b-axis during the early stage of charge and a major contraction along the c-axis with slight expansions along the a- and b-axis near the end of charge at high voltage limit. In $Li_{1-x}Ni_{0.5}Co_{0.2}Mn_{0.3}O_2$ cathode, however, the initial unit cell volume of H2 phase is bigger than that of H1 phase since the c-axis undergo large expansion while a- and b- axis shrink slightly. The change in the unit cell volume for $Li_{1-x}Ni_{0.5}Co_{0.2}Mn_{0.3}O_2$ during charge is smaller than that of $Li_{1-x}Ni_{0.8}Co_{0.15}Al_{0.05}O_2$. This smaller change in unit cell volume may give the $Li_{1-x}Ni_{0.5}Co_{0.2}Mn_{0.3}O_2$ cathode material a better structural reversibility for a long cycling life.

• Journal of Electrochemical Science and Technology
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.472-478
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• 2022

Solar energy harvesting is practiced by various nations for the purpose of energy security and environment preservation in order to reduce overdependence on oil. Converting solar energy into electrical energy through Photovoltaic (PV) module can take place either in on-grid or off-grid applications. In recent time Lithium battery is exhibiting its presence in on-grid applications but its role in off-grid application is rarely discussed in the literature. The preliminary capacity and Peukert's study indicated that the battery quality is good and can be subjected for life cycle test. The capacity of the battery was 10.82 Ah at 1 A discharge current and the slope of 1.0117 in the Peukert's study indicated the reaction is very fast and independent on rate of discharge. In this study Lithium Iron Phosphate battery (LFP) after initial characterization was subjected to life cycle test which is specific to solar off-grid application as defined in IEC standard. The battery has delivered just 6 endurance units at room temperature before its capacity reached 75% of rated value. The low life of LFP battery in off-grid application is discussed based on State of Charge (SOC) operating window. The battery was operated both in high and low SOC's in off-grid application and both are detrimental to life of lithium battery. High SOC operation resulted in cell-to-cell variation and low SOC operation resulted in lithium plating on negative electrode. It is suggested that to make it more suitable for off-grid applications the battery by default has to be overdesigned by nearly 40% of its rated capacity.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.516-527
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• 2013

This paper presents a new overall system for state-of-available-power (SoAP) prediction for a lithium-ion battery pack. The essential part of this method is based on an adaptive network architecture which utilizes both fuzzy model (FIS) and artificial neural network (ANN) into the framework of adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS). While battery aging proceeds, the system is capable of delivering accurate power prediction not only for room temperature, but also at lower temperatures at which power prediction is most challenging. Due to design property of ANN, the network parameters are adapted on-line to the current battery states (state-of-charge (SoC), state-of-health (SoH), temperature). SoC is required as an input parameter to SoAP module and high accuracy is crucial for a reliable on-line adaptation. Therefore, a reasonable way to determine the battery state variables is proposed applying a combination of several partly different algorithms. Among other SoC boundary estimation methods, robust extended Kalman filter (REKF) for recalibration of amp hour counters was implemented. ANFIS then achieves the SoAP estimation by means of time forward voltage prognosis (TFVP) before a power pulse occurs. The trade-off between computational cost of batch-learning and accuracy during on-line adaptation was optimized resulting in a real-time system with TFVP absolute error less than 1%. The verification was performed on a software-in-the-loop test bench setup using a 53 Ah lithium-ion cell.

• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.210-214
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• 2012

Mass production-capable $Li_2MnSiO_4$ powder was synthesized for use as cathode material in state-of-the-art lithium-ion batteries. These batteries are main powder sources for high tech-end digital electronic equipments and electric vehicles in the near future and they must possess high specific capacity and durable charge-discharge characteristics. Amorphous silicone was quite superior to crystalline one as starting material to fabricate silicone oxide with high reactivity between precursors of sol-gel type reaction intermediates. The amorphous silicone starting material also has beneficial effect of efficiently controlling secondary phases, most notably $Li_xSiO_x$. Lastly, carbon was coated on $Li_2MnSiO_4$ powders by using sucrose to afford some improved electrical conductivity. The carbon-coated $Li_2MnSiO_4$ cathode material was further characterized using SEM, XRD, and galvanostatic charge/discharge test method for morphological and electrochemical examinations. Coin cell was subject to 1.5-4.8 V at C/20, where 74 mAh/g was observed during primary discharge cycle.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.39-44
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• 1998

$LiCoO_2$ powder was synthesized in an aqueous solution by a sol-gel method and used as a cathode active material for a lithium ion rechargeable battery. The layered $LiCoO_2$ powders were prepared by igniting in air for 12 hrs at 600 ℃ $(600-LiCoO_2)$ and 850 ℃ $(850-LiCoO_2)$. The structure of the $LiCoO_2$ powder was assigned to the space group R bar 3 m (lattice parameters a=2.814 Å and c=14.04Å). The SEM pictures of $600-LiCoO_2$ revealed homogeneous and fine particles of about 1 μm in diameter. Cyclic voltammograms (CVs) of $600-LiCoO_2$ electrode displayed a set of redox peaks at 3.80/4.05 V due to the intercalation/deintercalation of the lithium ions into/out of the $LiCoO_2$ structure. CVs for the $850-LiCoO_2$ electrode had a major set of redox peaks at 3.88/4.13 V, and two small set of redox peaks at 4.18/4.42 V and 4.05/4.25 V due to phase transitions. The initial charge-discharge capacity was 156-132 mAh/g for the $600-LiCoO_2$ electrode and 158-131 mAh/g for the $850-LiCoO_2$ electrode at the current density of 0.2 mA/cm2. The cycleability of the cell consisting of the $600-LiCoO_2$ electrode was better than that of the $850-LiCoO_2$. The diffusion coefficient of the $Li^+$ ion in the $600-LiCoO_2$ electrode was calculated as $4.6{\times}10^{-8}\; cm^2/sec$.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.117-124
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• 2011

We demonstrate a new surface modification of high-voltage lithium cobalt oxide ($LiCoO_2$) cathode active materials for lithium-ion batteries. This approach is based on exploitation of a polarity-tuned gel polymer electrolyte (GPE) coating. Herein, two contrast polymers having different polarity are chosen: polyimide (PI) synthesized from thermally curing 4-component (pyromellitic dianhydride/biphenyl dianhydride/phenylenediamine/oxydianiline) polyamic acid (as a polar GPE) and ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymer (EVA) containing 12 wt% vinyl acetate repeating unit (as a less polar GPE). The strong affinity of polyamic acid for $LiCoO_2$ allows the resulting PI coating layer to present a highly-continuous surface film of nanometer thickness. On the other hand, the less polar EVA coating layer is poorly deposited onto the $LiCoO_2$, resulting in a locally agglomerated morphology with relatively high thickness. Based on the characterization of GPE coating layers, their structural difference on the electrochemical performance and thermal stability of high-voltage (herein, 4.4 V) $LiCoO_2$ is thoroughly investigated. In comparison to the EVA coating layer, the PI coating layer is effective in preventing the direct exposure of $LiCoO_2$ to liquid electrolyte, which thus plays a viable role in improving the high-voltage cell performance and mitigating the interfacial exothermic reaction between the charged $LiCoO_2$ and liquid electrolytes.

• Journal of the Semiconductor & Display Technology
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.28-32
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• 2023

Recently, the use of stable lithium nanostructures as substrates and electrodes for secondary batteries can be a fundamental alternative to the development of next-generation system semiconductor devices. However, lithium structures pose safety concerns by severely limiting battery life due to the growth of Li dendrites during rapid charge/discharge cycles. Also, enabling long cyclability of high-voltage oxide cathodes is a persistent challenge for all-solid-state batteries, largely because of their poor interfacial stabilities against oxide solid electrolytes. For the development of next-generation system semiconductor devices, solid electrolyte nanostructures, which are used in high-density micro-energy storage devices and avoid the instability of liquid electrolytes, can be promising alternatives for next-generation batteries. Nevertheless, poor lithium ion conductivity and structural defects at room temperature have been pointed out as limitations. In this study, a low-dimensional Graphene Oxide (GO) structure was applied to demonstrate stable operation characteristics based on Li+ ion conductivity and excellent electrochemical performance. The low-dimensional structure of GO-based solid electrolytes can provide an important strategy for stable scalable solid-state power system semiconductor applications at room temperature. The device using uncoated bare NCA delivers a low capacity of 89 mA h g-1, while the cell using GO-coated NCA delivers a high capacity of 158 mA h g−1 and a low polarization. A full Li GO-based device was fabricated to demonstrate the practicality of the modified Li structure using the Li-GO heterointerface. This study promises that the lowdimensional structure of Li-GO can be an effective approach for the stabilization of solid-state power system semiconductor architectures.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.14-20
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• 2018

Electric vehicles are environmentally friendly because they emit no exhaust gas, unlike gasoline automobiles. However, since they are driven by the electric power from batteries, the distance they can travel based on a single charge depends on their energy density. Therefore, the lithium-ion battery having a high energy density is a good candidate for the batteries of electric vehicles. Since the electrode is an essential component that governs their efficiency, the electrode manufacturing process plays a vital role in the entire production process of lithium-ion batteries. In particular, the coating process is a critical step in the manufacturing of the electrode, which has a significant influence on its performance. In this paper, we propose an innovative process for improving the efficiency and productivity of the coating process in electrode manufacturing and describe the equipment design method and development results. Specifically, we propose a design procedure and development method in order to improve the core plate coating quality by 25%, using a technology capable of reducing the assembly margin due to its high output/high capacity and improving the product capacity quality and assembly process yield. Using this method, the battery life of the lithium-ion battery cell was improved. Compared with the existing coating process, the target loading level is maintained and dispersed to maintain the anode capacity (${\pm}0.4{\rightarrow}{\pm}0.3mg/cm^2r$ reduction).

• Resources Recycling
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.79-86
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• 2019

Recently, the use of lithium ion battery(LIB) has increased. As a result, the price of lithium and the amount spent lithium on ion battery has increased. For this reason, research on recycling lithium in waste LIBs has been conducted1). In this study, the effect of roasting for the selective lithium leaching from the spent LIBs is studied. Chemical transformation is required for selective lithium leaching in NCM LiNi_xCo_yMn_zO₂) of the spent LIBs. The carbon in the waste EV cell powder reacts with the oxygen of the oxide at high temperature. After roasting at 550 ~ 850 ℃ in the Air/N₂ atmosphere, the chemical transformation is analysed by XRD. The heat treated powders are leached at a ratio of 1:10 in D.I water for ICP analysis. As a result of XRD analysis, Li₂CO₃ peak is observed at 700 ℃. After the heat treatment at 850 ℃, a peak of Li₂O was confirmed because Li₂CO₃ is decomposed into Li₂O and CO₂ over 723 ℃. The produced Li₂O reacted with Al at high temperature to form LiAlO₂, which does not leach in D.I water, leading to a decrease in lithium leaching ratio. As a result of lithium leaching in water after heat treatment, lithium leaching ratio was the highest after heat treatment at 700 ℃. After the solid-liquid separation, over 45 % of lithium leaching was confirmed by ICP analysis. After evaporation of the leached solution, peak of Li₂CO₃ was detected by XRD.