Final Report Summary - HIPERBAT (Hunting for high performance energy storage in batteries)
Despite large research efforts, the performance improvement of Li-ion battery systems over the last decades has been relatively small. A major bottle neck is the difficulty to probe the relevant processes under realistic operando conditions (during (dis)charge) and the difficulty to simulate these processes. During the HIPERBAT project novel methods have been developed and applied, directly looking at the relevant phenomena inside working battery electrodes. This has revealed what charge transport mechanisms are rate limiting under what conditions, which has been used to develop theoretical models of complete electrodes, that are now used to design high performance batteries. The developed experimental approaches are also applied to future promising battery systems such as Li-air and all solid state batteries, revealing the fundamental processes that limit their performance. This is currently leading to novel strategies that bring high performance energy storage in these next generation battery chemistries closer to realization.