Open Access

The reuse of lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) from electric vehicles (EVs) in second-life applications such as battery energy storage systems (BESSs) offers significant environmental and economic benefits. Beyond economic considerations, safety management is a key challenge for large-scale deployment, yet the influence of ageing on LIB safety remains insufficiently understood. Preger et al., emphasized in their review the existing gap on data about electrical abuse and high-capacity cells. This laboratory-scale study investigates the evolution of key safety parameters over battery lifetime. The present study contribute to closing this gap studying three types of LIB cells (Nickel Manganese Cobalt (NMC) chemistry) from EV and hybrid EV batteries that were artificially aged and tested at three representative states of health (SOH): 100% (beginning-of-life, BOL), 80% (end of first life), and 60% (midpoint of second life). Cells were subjected to thermal abuse, overcharge, and accelerating rate calorimetry, with selected tests coupled to online gas analysis. Results show a pronounced ageing effect on thermal stability. The onset temperature of thermal runaway was reduced by 17–69 ◦C for aged cells (60% SOH) compared with BOL cells, while overcharge acceptance decreased by 13–78%. Although aged cells exhibited lower thermal stability, their thermal runaway reactions under inert conditions were less severe, as indicated by lower maximum temperatures. These findings highlight the need to account for ageing-induced shifts in exothermic reaction onset and thermal runaway behavior when designing safe second-life BESS. Future work should extend the analysis to LFP chemistries especially as the market is expected to shift towards this chemistry and consider battery and system levels, including influence of ageing on thermal runaway propagation.

In a combined career and science talk the audience of young battery scientists were introduced to BAM, the career path of the speaker and tecent research results of division 3.6 at BAM.

The increasing demand for alkali-metal batteries, lithium and sodium, highlights the importance of recycling approaches. For batteries which encompass low-value components such as cobalt-free and sodium-ion, a requirement for low-cost and low-energy processes for recovery and reuse. In this respect, direct recycling, is preferred where the functional structure of active materials is preserved. In this study, a direct recycling route for sodium nickel-iron-manganese-copper oxide cathode material for sodium-ion batteries was investigated and preliminary results reveal the challenges in this direct recycling approach. Commercial sodium-ion battery cells were safely disassembled in a Glovebox and the positive electrode material was extracted via ice stripping. The recovered electrode material was structurally and compositionally characterised using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and inductive coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES) to assess morphology, crystallinity, and elemental stoichiometry.

Atomically dispersed Fe in N-doped carbon (Fe–N–C) catalysts are leading platinum-group-metal-free candidates for the O2 reduction reaction in proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs). Zeolitic imidazolate framework (ZIF-8) derived Fe–N–C present the most promising performance; however, they possess a narrow distribution of small micropores, which limits active site accessibility. Here, to induce hierarchical porosity in Fe–N–C, we report a systematic study on MgCl2·6H2O-templated ZIF-8-derived Fe–N–C catalysts for the O2 reduction reaction. MgCl2·6H2O addition induced complete Zn removal, collapse of the ZIF-8 framework, and formation of large micro- and mesopores, with graphene-like structures. N content was markedly reduced, with conversion from pyridinic to pyrrolic N species. Rotating disc electrode tests showed a progressive increase in O2 reduction activity with MgCl2·6H2O, which is strongly correlated (R2 = 0.98) to the formation of large micropores and small mesopores (1–4 nm). This introduces an indirect structure–activity design principle for Fe–N–Cs. The enhanced Fe–N–C porosity also leads to increased degradation rates under accelerated stress test conditions, which we attributed to the oxidation of disordered carbon domains and active Fe loss. This study highlights a key trade-off between porosity-driven O2 reduction activity and durability in Fe–N–C catalysts.

As the first commercial sodium-ion-batteries (SIBs) are available for purchase, it is possible to investigate material composition. Gaining an insight into the material composition of these SIBs is of interest not only for the classification of possible safety risks and hazards, but also in regard to recycling. Herein we report the preliminary investigations of the chemical and structural composition of first commercial SIB-cells.[1,2] Two different SIB-cell types were compared in terms of electrode size, thickness, loading etc. Furthermore, the composition of the active materials and electrolyte was investigated and compared. Finally, the gained results were linked to the different data sheet performance of the two cell types.