Lithium plating detection using dynamic electrochemical impedance spectroscopy in lithium-ion batteries

This paper proposes a lithium plating detection method for lithium-ion batteries that can be applied in real time, during the charging procedure. It is based on the impedance analysis and it can be realized by utilizing the dynamic electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (DEIS) technique. Specifically, a sinusoidal current is superimposed on the charging current, and the battery impedance is analyzed in the frequency domain without interrupting the charging procedure. In case of lithium plating during charging, the graphite interfacial impedance is significantly decreased and thus, the lithium plating can be detected by monitoring the real and imaginary parts of the battery impedance in real-time. Two battery cell types with different active materials and energy densities are examined at several temperatures and charging currents. The effectiveness of the proposed DEIS technique is validated with the voltage relaxation profile method and in comparison with the current interruption method, for different charging conditions, cell formats and chemistries. The experimental results reveal that the proposed method is capable to effectively detect the lithium plating for rates as high as 6C, at different temperatures and for different battery types.