2021 Virtual Undergraduate Research Symposium
2021 Virtual Undergraduate Research Symposium
SPECTROSCOPIC INVESTIGATION OF LITHIUM TRANSPORT IN ELECTROLYTES FOR BATTERY FAST CHARGING
SPECTROSCOPIC INVESTIGATION OF LITHIUM TRANSPORT IN ELECTROLYTES FOR BATTERY FAST CHARGING
PROJECT NUMBER: 62 | AUTHOR: Jorgen Heilbron, Mechanical Engineering
MENTOR: Jason Porter, Mechanical Engineering
ABSTRACT
Temperature and Lithium concentration in an electrolyte are both important variables in understanding what is occurring in a battery at a given moment in time. This is why spectroscopy is so powerful, it gives insight into what is present in a battery at a given moment in time. In this project, the temperature and electrolyte concentration equations as a function of absorbance values were sought out experimentally and analytically. This would be done through analysis of spectral data at known concentrations and temperatures and fitting it through MATLAB.
Before attempting this analysis, it will require specific wavenumbers in which absorbance values don’t change as a function of concentration but rather only of temperature. While this is most likely not the case, as absorbance is both a function of temperature and concentration, specific wavenumbers can be found where the absorbance values have very minimal changes with changes in concentrations. A preliminary attempt at this method has done and shows promise for future experiments. For said preliminary attempt, a set of spectra for five concentrations, 0.50M, 0.75M, 1.00M, 1.25M, and 1.50M, is used to determine which wavenumbers have the least correlation between absorbance and concentration.
PRESENTATION
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Jorgen Heilbron is a Senior in Mechanical Engineering with +2 years of experience in spectroscopic research with lithium-ion batteries under Dr. Jason Porter. Jorgen’s research has consisted of; running spectroscopic tests on lithium-ion coin cells that he made in an argon glove box, determining the transport number of a given electrolyte through spectroscopy and MATLAB, design components and parts in Solidworks for specific experiments, analyze a given set of spectra, and utilize a given set of spectra to determine the lithium-ion concentration of that cell. Jorgen would like to continue his research with Dr. Porter, meaning he would like to continue investigating lithium-ion batteries spectroscopically. Jorgen would also like to research the usage of micro/mesoporous materials as electrodes in experimental batteries.
Hello Jorgen, very intersting work. Is it possible that the absorbance values at some wavenumbers don’t change with the variances in Li concentrations for certain temperature, but would change rapidly for other temperatures?
Hello Yinan,
I appreciate your interest in my research. It is very possible, in fact after doing some more research after I finished this poster I was able to find a few wavenumbers that did have little to no deviation as the electrolyte concentration changed.
Hello Jorgen,
I really enjoyed going over your poster and I feel like I was able to gain a good understanding of your project just from the limited media we submitted for this symposium. I also appreciated that you used the video to highlight the important aspects of the data. I am curious as to whether you will work with other similar or other suitable electrolytes in the future?
Hello Paris,
I’m very glad that my poster and video were informative! As this will be my last MURF I’m not entirely sure, of course, I would love to continue my research after I graduate at Mines or at other institutions/companies, for now, my future with these electrolytes is unknown.
Awesome work Jorgen. I was not aware that spectral data could be used to monitor battery performance; however, the reasoning outlined in your paper makes the criticality clear. You seem to have developed an excellent tool for determining battery condition in-situ that can be combined with other research efforts in the future. I wish you the best of luck moving forward to find wavelength values that stay steady through the concentration range.