Lithium-Ion Batteries: Basics to Advanced Technology Course

Trace the history of lithium ion batteries from early galvanic cells to commercialization in the 1990s, highlighting milestones from cell phones, laptops, smartphones, tablets, and electric vehicles to grid stations.

Learn how lithium mining uses geological surveys, geophysical testing, and remote sensing to locate deposits, then drilling to assess depth and grade, with brine or hard-rock extraction and environmental considerations.

Explore two lithium extraction paths: salt lake brine and hard rock, covering concentration, purification, and final battery-grade lithium carbonate or hydroxide through processes like evaporation, calcination, leaching, and precipitation.

Explain why lithium ion batteries offer higher specific and volumetric energy density than other rechargeable cells, with improved safety and resistance to overcharge. Highlight their suitability for lightweight, smarter electronics.

Learn how lithium ion batteries work: ions move from cathode to the negative electrode through the electrolyte and separator during charging, while electrons travel via the outer circuit.

Explore how 3D printing enables rapid prototyping and custom lithium-ion battery designs, from digital models to printed batteries, with design freedom, reduced tooling, and weight optimization.

Contrast primary batteries, designed for single use, with secondary rechargeable batteries whose chemical reactions reverse under electrical current; lithium-ion batteries exemplify this, powering laptops.

Explore common lithium ion battery materials from lithium cobalt oxide and lithium manganese oxide to NCM and lithium ion phosphate, highlighting high specific energy, safety, and long cycle life.

Examine lithium ion phosphate nanocrystals used by EV manufacturers, achieving up to 10,000 cycle stability and 175 capacity. Understand the trade-off with low specific capacity that requires bigger, heavier batteries.

Explore lithium-sulfur batteries, highlighting their high energy density and potential for cheaper, longer-lasting power in electric vehicles and aircraft. Examine how electrolytes and carbon additives influence cycle life and viability.

Apply Faraday's law to calculate the theoretical (ideal) capacity of active materials, and relate it to practical capacity, the charge carrier, and molecular weight.

examine charging and discharging as an experimental technique that mimics long-term battery operation. analyze coulomb efficiency and how charge rates influence capacity, using lithium titanate and lithium iron phosphate.

Explore electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) for lithium-ion batteries, using Nyquist plots where smaller semicircles show lower RB, SDI, charge transfer resistances, and Warburg diffusion.

Explore cyclic voltammetry, a dynamic electrochemical measurement that tracks current versus applied potential while cycling from V1 to V2 and back, revealing oxidation and reduction peaks.

Prepare the electrode suspension for either anode or cathode material, verify its conductivity, then coat it on copper foil with a doctor blade to optimize thickness and battery performance.

Explore the anode and its function in lithium-ion batteries, detailing porosity, conductivity, durability, lightweight, and cost to pair with carbon, graphene, graphite, lithium, and silicon cathodes.

Explore the cathode's function and materials like lithium cobalt oxide and lithium iron phosphate, emphasizing porosity, conductivity, durability, and lightweight design.

Discover how separators in lithium-ion batteries act as electrically insulated ion transporters, resist chemical degradation, stay mechanically strong, and remain non-conductive, with polyethylene and polypropylene as common materials.

Explain the current collector as an electrical connector between the electrode and external circuits, using copper foil on the north side and aluminum foil on the cathode side for conductivity.