The Degradation Behavior of LiFePO4/C Batteries during Long-Term Calendar Aging

With widespread applications for lithium-ion batteries in energy storage systems, the performance degradation of the battery attracts more and more attention. Understanding the battery’s long-term aging characteristics is essential for the extension of the service lifetime of the battery and the safe operation of the system. In this paper, lithium iron phosphate (LiFePO4) batteries were subjected to long-term (i.e., 27–43 months) calendar aging under consideration of three stress factors (i.e., time, temperature and state-of-charge (SOC) level) impact. By means of capacity measurements and resistance calculation, the battery’s long-term degradation behaviors were tracked over time. Battery aging models were established by a simple but accurate two-step nonlinear regression approach. Based on the established model, the effect of the aging temperature and SOC level on the long-term capacity fade and internal resistance increase of the battery is analyzed. Furthermore, the storage life of the battery with respect to different stress factors is predicted. The analysis results can hopefully provide suggestions for optimizing the storage condition, thereby prolonging the lifetime of batteries.