Fast charging of lithium-ion batteries at all temperatures

Abstract

Fast charging is a key enabler of mainstream adoption of electri vehicles (EVs). None of today’s EVs can withstand fast charging i cold or even cool temperatures due to the risk of lithium plating Efforts to enable fast charging are hampered by the trade-of nature of a lithium-ion battery: Improving low-temperature fas charging capability usually comes with sacrificing cell durability Here, we present a controllable cell structure to break this trade off and enable lithium plating-free (LPF) fast charging. Further, th LPF cell gives rise to a unified charging practice independent o ambient temperature, offering a platform for the development o battery materials without temperature restrictions. We demon strate a 9.5 Ah 170 Wh/kg LPF cell that can be charged to 80 state of charge in 15 min even at −50 °C (beyond cell operatio limit). Further, the LPF cell sustains 4,500 cycles of 3.5-C charging i 0 °C with <20% capacity loss, which is a 90× boost of life com pared with a baseline conventional cell, and equivalent to >12 and >280,000 miles of EV lifetime under this extreme usage con dition, i.e., 3.5-C or 15-min fast charging at freezing temperatures.