Ion Transport in Porous Electrodes Obtained by Impedance Using a Symmetric Cell with Predictable Low-Temperature Battery Performance

The decline of lithium-ion battery (LIB) performance at low temperatures, caused by the nonuniform occurrence of electrochemical reactions during cycling and the resulting irreversible capacity loss, significantly hinders further LIB commercialization. Herein, we report the first solution by analyzing the impedance using symmetric cells in the absence of charge-transfer reactions to obtain a parameter quantitatively describing ion transport in porous electrodes and thus modeling the effects of nonuniform reaction occurrence. The reciprocal of ionic resistance in porous electrodes (Rion–1) is found to be positively correlated with capacity retention during low-temperature cycling and is approximated as the product of maximum capacitance related to electric double-layer formation (Cdl,max) and the associated frequency (f0). Consequently, these ion-transport parameters can be used to predict capacity retention during low-temperature cycling, and the adopted approach therefore can help to mitigate low-temperature LIB performance degradation and thus contribute to the fabrication of next-generation rechargeable batteries.