PhD Student Sebastian Paul Kühn from Helmholtz Institute Münster Wins Poster Prize
Scientist Sebastian Paul Kühn, together with his co-authors from Helmholtz Institute Münster, wins the poster prize of the battery conference "Kraftwerk Batterie - Advanced Battery Power"
22 May 2023 – On his poster, scientist Sebastian Paul Kühn from Helmholtz Institute Münster (HI MS; IEK-12) of Forschungszentrum Jülich presented to what extent different assembly atmospheres can influence experimental results of coin cell experiments. Together with his co-authors Dr Diddo Diddens and Matthias Weiling, who also work at the Helmholtz Institute Münster, he convinced the jury of participants and battery experts at the conference "Kraftwerk Batterie / Advanced Battery Power". He won the second prize of the poster competition, which is endowed with 750 euros.
Enclosed Ambient Atmosphere Influences Electrode-Electrolyte Interphases
Coin cells are a central component of academic and industrial battery research, for example during initial trial phases or post-mortem analyses of industrially manufactured battery cells. When coin cells are sealed, part of the assembly atmosphere, for example originating from a dry room or a glovebox, is trapped inside the cell and was therefore named "in coin cell atmosphere" (ICCA).
Previous studies have reported on the degradation and subsequent capacity loss of electrode material upon prolonged storage in ambient / dry room atmosphere. Kühn and his colleagues now show that the enclosed ICCA also has a significant influence on the electrochemical performance and post-mortem analyses, even though the trapped gas volume is not very large.
"The study compares a highly pure argon glovebox atmosphere commonly utilized in research facilities to a dry room atmosphere, which is the industrial standard production environment of battery cells, and especially the oxygen contained in the dry room atmosphere has an impact on the chemical composition of the interphases covering both electrodes," explains the award winner. "For example, the changes triggered by a dry room ICCA result in up to a 50 per cent increase in the lifetime of a lithium metal coin cell."
In addition, it was shown that ICCA affects the mode of action of the two additives studied, vinylene carbonate and fluorine ethylene carbonate, differently. The publication presented on the poster is available as an open access article in the Journal Energy Materials.
More Than 1,000 Conference Visitors
The conference "Kraftwerk Batterie - Advanced Battery Power" took place in Aachen this year with more than 1,000 participants. From 26 to 28 April 2023, the discussed topics ranged from the achievement of higher charging capacities for energy storage systems to the optimization of fabrication costs.
The international event was organised by Helmholtz Institute Münster, the MEET Battery Research Center of the University of Münster, the Institute for Power Electronics and Electrical Drives (ISEA) at RWTH Aachen University and Haus der Technik (HDT), Essen.