Effects of plastic deformation in current collector on lithium diffusion and stress in bilayer lithium-ion battery electrode

Abstract

Lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) have already become indispensable energy storage devices, as they can meet urgent requirements for higher energy and power density in the applications ranging from portable electronics to electric vehicles. However, in the process of charging and discharging of LIB, the diffusion-induced stress associated with inhomogeneous Li concentration in the electrode may cause the electrode material to damage, and then further degrade storage capacity and cycling performance of LIB. Therefore, it is important to quantitatively understand the mechanism relating to the stress evolution in electrode during electrochemical cycling, which will be conducive to developing effective methods of relieving the diffusion induced stress. In this work, a bilayer electrode model is proposed by taking into account Li diffusion, built-in stress, concentration-dependent material properties and elastoplastic deformation of current collector. Based on the established model, the influences of the possible plastic deformation in the current collector on the lithium diffusion and stress evolution of bilayer electrode during charging are investigated. The numerical results show that the plastic deformation of current collector can weaken the constraint between current collector and active layer, which leads to a smaller electrode curvature and more homogeneous lithium concentration in the active layer. The relaxation effect of the plastic deformation not only significantly relieves the stresses at the bottom and top surface of active layer, but also promotes the diffusion of lithium into active layer, which can improve the structural reliability of the electrode and increase the effective capacity of the active layer. Furthermore, the influences of the yield strength and plastic modulus of the current collector are discussed. The results indicate that the constraint between the current collector and active layer becomes weaker with reducing yield strength and plastic modulus of current collector, respectively. In other words, the further stress relaxation in the electrode indicates that the capacity can be enhanced upon reducing the yield strength and plastic modulus of current collector, respectively. Considering our results, it is expected that a bilayer electrode composed of the current collector with smaller mechanical strength enjoys simultaneous improvement in battery usable capacity and structural reliability. Consequently, the results of this paper provide a route to improving the cycle performance of bilayer lithium-ion battery electrode.