Nauka /Interperiodica

 
Degradation of Lithium-Ion Batteries 
and How to Fight It: A Review
 
L. S. Kanevskii
 
a,
 
z
 
 and V. S. Dubasova
 
b
 
a
 
Frumkin Institute of Electrochemistry, Russian Academy of Sciences, 
Leninskii pr. 31, Moscow, 119071 Russia
 
b
 
Scientific and Technological Design Institute of Electrocarbon Articles, 
Elektrougli, Moscow oblast, Russia
Received March 19, 2004
 
Abstract
—The phenomenology of the decrease in the capacity and energy density of lithium-ion batteries dur-
ing their cycling and storage is considered together with the basic factors responsible for this phenomenon
(overcharge and self-discharge of batteries, dissolution and phase alterations of electrode materials, cathodic
reduction and anodic oxidation of electrolyte components, corrosion of materials of current leads) and the
mechanism of chemical and electrochemical electrode processes responsible for degradation of batteries. Pos-
sible ways and basic techniques of increasing stability of exploitation characteristics of batteries are considered.
 
Key words
: lithium-ion battery, intercalation, impedance, lithium, carbon electrode, lithium cobaltite, lithium–
manganese spinel, aprotic electrolyte
 
z
Corresponding author, e-mail: [e-mail]

---

2
RUSSIAN JOURNAL OF ELECTROCHEMISTRY
Vol. 41
No. 1
2005
KANEVSKII, DUBASOVA
The rate and degree of the decrease in the capacity
of LIB during their cycling and surface storage depends
on many factors (temperature, nature of electrolyte and
electrode materials, depth of discharge, charge and dis-
charge currents, battery size). The multifactoredness of
the process of degradation of LIB can be responsible
for the fact that the values of the speed of worsening of
electrochemical characteristics of LIB, as reported by
different authors, vary in wide limits. The same goes for
the fact that the reasons that are used in order to explain
the degradation include very diverse phenomena and
specific features of systems: recharge and irreversible
self-discharge of LIB, deposition of metallic lithium on
the negative electrode, a change in the electrolyte com-
position as a result of its oxidation on the positive elec-
trode or reduction on the negative electrode, a decrease
in the electrochemical activity of electrodes, the elec-
trochemical and chemical dissolution of the active
material of electrodes and a change in its phase compo-
sition, and the destruction of current leads as a result of
corrosion [50]. It is pertinent to mention a very impor-
tant aspect of the procedure used for the experimental
determination of stability of electrodes of LIB or a bat-
tery as a whole. As was shown by the experience gained
when studying LIB, the results of the cycling of sepa-
rate electrodes in the so-called three-electrode half-
cells (electrode under study–lithium counterelectrode–
lithium reference electrode) may be quite different
from the results of experiments obtained in a system
containing no lithium reference electrode [51, 52], in