Project 2-8

A robust and descriptive physico-chemical model of a battery with recycled materials will be developed. Acceptable levels of material impurities will be identified by correlating simulations with own experimental results from aging tests, as well as electrochemical data obtained from other PhD projects. This digital evaluation is used both for the design of the cycle production (impurity limits) and the use case of the battery (operating limits). The main results will be condensed into parameter-property maps and are available for other PhD projects.

Specific objectives:

• Deriving the most important battery material properties as a function of impurities in aged and recycled materials
• Implementing a physico-chemical model on different scales (particle, electrode, and cell level) using Python
• Parametrizing, optimizing, and validating the model based on own experimental data (via EIS, CV, GITT, cycling, etc.)
• Model-assisted prediction of cell performance under consideration of degradation processes triggered by impurities
• Correlating the results with experimental data on battery material aging and degradation

Expected outcome:

• Well-parametrized physico-chemical model of batteries made from recycled materials
• Threshold amounts of impurities in recycled materials for long-term stable cell operation and sustainable closed-loop production
• Guidelines in form of parameter-property maps to elucidate e.g., a trade-off between acceptable impurity and cycling stability