Loading...
Thumbnail Image
Publication

Identifying thermo-kinetic parameters in lithium-sulfur battery models with optimization algorithms and the effect on model predictive capability

Korff, Daniel
Research Projects
Organizational Units
Journal Issue
Embargo Expires
Abstract
The work presented here explores the impact of reaction mechanism complexity on model-predictive capability for physics-based lithium-sulfur (Li-S) battery models. The conversion nature of Li-S cathodes includes intermediate species, called polysulfides, that are produced which are soluble in liquid electrolyte. These soluble polysulfides (PSs) lead to many challenges for commercializing Li-S batteries. Physics-based models provide a route to improving understanding of Li-S batteries; however, there are many questions remaining with regards to reaction mechanism complexity, thermo-kinetic parameters for species and reactions, and the impact these things have on model veracity. This work demonstrates that assumptions regarding the solvation structure of species being modeled and the reaction mechanism used has a significant impact on results at multiple levels. Due to the complexity of Li-S batteries, cell voltage during charge/discharge cycles is only one quantitative element to phenomena that are occurring during use. The evolution of species concentrations throughout charge/discharge is also crucial to guide design and operation decisions for Li-S batteries to avoid rapid degradation in battery performance. Increasing reaction mechanism complexity increases the interplay between species in the electrolyte. However, the increase in mechanism complexity increases the number of thermo-kinetic parameters, for which there is little or no good knowledge of physically meaningful values. In order to address this gap, the global optimization method differential evolution (DE) is used to explore parameter spaces in a much more thorough way than could be done by hand. The results demonstrate that improvement in goodness of fit with experimental data is significant and the impact on model predictive capability further shows the importance of the reaction mechanism used.
Associated Publications
Rights
Copyright of the original work is retained by the author.
Embedded videos