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An overview of degradation phenomena modeling in


lithium-ion battery electrodes
Chien-Fan Chen, Pallab Barai and Partha P Mukherjee

The formation of solid electrolyte interphase and diffusion interfacial layer hinders lithium intercalation, which
induced microcrack in the lithium-ion battery electrodes are may increase kinetic resistance [8].
predominant degradation mechanisms, which cause capacity
fade and cell impedance rise. Physics-based degradation Mechanical degradation due to diffusion-induced stress
models reveal new insights and allow fundamental (DIS) generation and microcrack formation in LIB elec-
understanding of the transport–chemistry–mechanics trode active particles also received significant attention in
interactions. In addition, simulation-based diagnostics (e.g. the last few years, as a key degradation mode [9,10].
electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, acoustic emission Microcracks form when the intercalation induced stress
characteristics) can enable virtual probing and interrogation of in the active particles exceeds the material fracture
electrode degradation behavior. This short perspective threshold. Crack formation and propagation from the
highlights the recent progress in physics-based degradation particle surface may lead to enhanced SEI formation
modeling and virtual diagnostics in lithium-ion battery and concurrent loss of cyclable lithium [11]. Pulverization
electrodes. of active particles may further lead to loss of electrical
contact [12].
Address
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Texas A&M University, College
This review aims to provide a brief overview of the
Station, TX, USA
modeling studies related to the mechanical (i.e. micro-
Corresponding author: Mukherjee, Partha P (pmukherjee@tamu.edu) crack formation) and chemical degradation (i.e. SEI for-
mation) mechanisms, and the corresponding influence on
the electrochemical properties and performance decay. A
Current Opinion in Chemical Engineering 2016, 13:82–90
discussion on the simulation-driven diagnostics of the
This review comes from a themed issue on Energy and degradation behavior, such as electrochemical impedance
environmental engineering
spectroscopy and acoustic emission, is also included.
Edited by Vasilios I Manousiouthakis and Vilas Pol
For a complete overview see the Issue and the Editorial
Mathematical model for the degradation
Available online 25th August 2016 phenomena
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.coche.2016.08.008 Solid electrolyte interphase
2211-3398/# 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. The macroscopic models are useful method to predict the
SEI formation, and its influence on the capacity lost
[13,14] and the increase in internal resistance [15].
Figure 1 shows the SEM image of SEI formation on
the graphite particle [2]. To date, different degradation
models have been developed to predict the SEI formation
Introduction and its influence. The model development has been
Life of lithium-ion batteries (LIB) is dictated by the focused on the SEI layer structure [16,17], the thermal
underlying chemo-mechanical degradation mechanisms, effect on the SEI formation [18,19], the influence of SEI
such as microcrack formation in the active particles due to on electrochemical properties [20,21], and the stress
the diffusion induced stress generation [1], and the for- generation inside the SEI layer [22,23].
mation of the solid-electrolyte interphase (SEI) [2–4].
These degradation modes cause capacity fade and im- In most of the SEI growth model, the SEI layer is treated
pedance rise, thereby affecting the life of LIBs. as a thin layer. However, the growth and morphology of
the SEI layer vary spatially within the electrode micro-
During the charging process, the SEI forms as a thin structure and also with state-of-charge (SOC). Ploehn
layer (5–300 nm) at the active particle–electrolyte in- et al. [24] proposed a solvent diffusion model, which
terface [5]. Although the SEI is necessary for prevent- assumes that a reactive solvent component diffuses
ing undesired reduction and oxidation of the electrode through the SEI and undergoes two-electron reduction
and electrolyte [6], it also comes with several disad- at the carbon-SEI interface. This model predicted that
vantages. This chemical degradation mode causes ca- the SEI thickness growth is proportional to the square
pacity fade due to irreversible consumption of the root of time. Li et al. [16] studied the formation of SEI in
solvent and active lithium-ions [7]. Moreover, this thin, the Graphite/LiFePO4 batteries, where the SEI layer was

Current Opinion in Chemical Engineering 2016, 13:82–90 www.sciencedirect.com


Degradation phenomena in lithium-ion battery electrodes Chen, Barai and Mukherjee 83

Figure 1 included by using the Arrhenius equation to determine


the temperature-dependent properties.
(a)   
Eact;f 1 1
F ¼ Fref exp  (1)
R T ref T

From the results of Liu et al. [18], the SEI layer thickness
grows faster under high temperature operation due to the
high side reaction rate and the increase of diffusivity. The
results from Xie et al. [19] shows that high electrolyte salt
concentration can stabilize battery performance by com-
pensating the rise of internal resistance due to the con-
200 nm sumption of lithium-ion in the electrolyte.

Since the presence of SEI layer can hinder the reaction


between electrolyte and active material, there is a poten-
(b) tial drop across the SEI layer. To capture the potential
drop, Phul et al. [20] developed a model, which is able to
capture the potential drop according to the diffusion and
migration of lithium-ions across the SEI layer. The poten-
tial drop from the calculation is fit with the experimental
data. From this model, there exists a range of potential
drop, which can cause large capacity loss. Besides the
prediction of potential drop, Deng et al. [21] proposed a
phase field model that takes the non-zero charge density
into account, which includes the influence of double layer
on the SEI formation. In this model, the SEI formation is
treated as a phase transformation process, where the
200 nm electrolyte phase is transformed to the SEI phase due
to the electrochemical side reaction. From this model, the
SEI growth was found to be a diffusion-limited process.
Current Opinion in Chemical Engineering
This study also concluded that the growth rate of SEI
varies with the initial state-of-charge of anode.
SEM image of a graphite electrode with and without the SEI formation:
(a) pristine electrode, (b) electrode after one cycle at C/10 rate.
Adopted from Ref. [2].
According to the experimental study of Mukhopadhyay
et al. [25], the SEI formation on a thin-film graphite anode
causes reversible and irreversible stresses during the SEI
formation. The nominal equi-biaxial stress sn in the
assumed to have two layers. The outer SEI layer grows combined graphite/SEI film on the quartz substrate can
faster than the inner SEI layer, and the formation of SEI is be calculated from the classical Stoney formula.
based on electron tunneling. This model also includes the !
exfoliation of SEI on the interface between graphite and 1 E h2Q
sn ¼ k (2)
SEI layer. According to this model, the capacity loss is 6 ð1nQ Þ hQ
highly dependent on the SOC due to the electrode
potential and the tunneling probability. To study the where k is the curvature of the plate, EQ and yQ are the
morphology evolution of the SEI, Guan et al. [17] Young’s modulus and the Poisson’s ratio of the quartz
proposed a phase-field method based model. This model substrate, and hQ and hG are the thicknesses of the quartz
can simulate the SEI structure and morphology evolution. and graphite layers.
From the predicted SEI structure, the model can estimate
the lithium-ion diffusion through the compact, porous, To simulate the stress generation in the SEI layer, Rejo-
and multilayered structure of SEI layer. vitzky et al. [22] developed a chemo-mechanical simula-
tion model to predict the SEI growth and the growth stress
To include the influence of temperature on the SEI in the SEI layer. With suitable choices of material param-
growth, Liu et al. [18] and Xie et al. [19] developed a eters, their model can reproduce the experimental results
1D electrochemical-thermal coupled model, which from Mukhopadhyay et al. [25]. According to their results,
includes the growth mechanism of the SEI layer and a large non-uniform compressive hoop stress is generated
temperature evolution. The influence of temperature is in the SEI layer due to both the lithiation/delithiation of

www.sciencedirect.com Current Opinion in Chemical Engineering 2016, 13:82–90


84 Energy and environmental engineering

the anode particle and the growth of the SEI layer. Besides diffusion induced stress experienced during lithiation/
the stress generation inside the SEI layer, Laresgoiti et al. delithiation process [31].
[23] proposed a model, which predicts the fracture inside
the SEI layer. From this model, additional capacity loss The amount of mechanical degradation in intercalation
during cycling has been found since the fracture in the SEI materials is mostly governed by the concentration gradi-
layer exposes bare active materials to the electrolyte. ent [27]. Variation in diffusion coefficient with temper-
ature follows the Arrhenius type relation (see Eq. (1)).
Reduced diffusivity at lower temperature gives rise to
Mechanical damage higher concentration gradient, which has the potential to
For an electrode, possibility of mechanical degradation produce enhanced mechanical degradation [32]. Similar
depends on the maximum amount of diffusion induced to the diffusion coefficient, the fracture threshold param-
stress at the active particles or the particle/additive (or eter and the elastic modulus also vary significantly with
particle/current-collector) interface [26]. If the local stress temperature. At low temperature ambient conditions,
exceeds the fracture threshold at that point, microcracks graphite anode behaves as a highly brittle material with
will evolve and propagate [27]. Figure 2 shows a repre- increased magnitude of elastic modulus, which is prone to
sentative SEM image of microcracks formed in the graph- rupture. Severe microcracking of the anode has been
ite active particle [28]. Hence, determination of the observed at subzero temperature operation [33]. Ductility
magnitude of stress within the active particle is essential of solid materials is also observed to increase at higher
to estimate evolution of mechanical degradation. The temperatures. Hence, negligible mechanical degradation
pioneering work was conducted by Christensen and New- occurs in lithium-ion battery active particles during oper-
man, where they looked into the distribution of mechani- ation at room temperature [33].
cal stress within carbonaceous anode materials [29]. The
presented mathematical model took into consideration Future lithium-ion batteries are expected to offer higher
the impact of hydrostatic stress and volume expansion energy density. Increasing the specific capacity of anode
during the transport of lithium within spherical active has the potential to achieve that goal. However, high
particles. They concluded that carbonaceous anode mate- capacity anode materials (such as, silicon, tin, germanium)
rials are prone to fracture during high power operations experience 300% volume expansion during lithiation,
(usually observed in hybrid-electric-vehicles) [29]. This which is followed by severe mechanical degradation
technique has been extended to measure the stress [34]. Higa and Srinivasan developed a mathematical
evolution within spherical lithium-manganese-oxide model to estimate the evolution of mechanical stress
(LMO) cathode materials during two-phase diffusion of within cylindrical silicon active particles under the as-
lithium [30]. Small volume expansion was considered sumption of elastic deformation [35]. Computational
while estimating transport and mechanical deformation modeling of the two-phase transport of lithium and elas-
within LMO based active particles. Incorporating forma- toplastic deformation of silicon active particles has been
tion and movement of dislocations within low volume reported [36]. Concentrated solution theory based lithium
expansion insertion electrodes, it is possible to reduce the transport model coupled with large volume expansion has
been developed to study the irreversible changes in
atomic structure of silicon during lithiation/delithiation
Figure 2
process. This technique permits the creation and destruc-
tion of unoccupied silicon lattice sites due to irreversible
plastic deformation [37]. Impact of coupled electrical,
chemical and mechanical potential on the transport of
lithium as well as subsequent mechanical degradation,
Transgranular has been analyzed using a nonlinear finite element based
Crack framework [38]. Small strain small displacement based
mathematical framework has been developed to study
stress generation and delamination experienced by tin
micropillars [39] and thin films [26]. They incorporated
two-phase diffusion based transport of lithium [26] along
with creep deformation of tin active particles [39]. Math-
ematical models based on large volume expansion and
1 μm elastoplastic deformation of zinc-oxide nanowires were
developed to capture the transport of lithium and subse-
Current Opinion in Chemical Engineering quent stress generation [40].

SEM image of typical hairline crack propagation in a graphite particle. Estimation of the magnitude and location of maximum
Adopted from Ref. [28]. stress gives an idea about whether mechanical degradation

Current Opinion in Chemical Engineering 2016, 13:82–90 www.sciencedirect.com


Degradation phenomena in lithium-ion battery electrodes Chen, Barai and Mukherjee 85

is possible within active particles. However, to predict the based fracture criteria was adopted to initiate microcracks
extent of mechanical damage, evolution of microcracks [27]. A safe design (particle size) and operating (C-rate)
and propagation of crack fronts must be analyzed. Barai regime has been demonstrated in Figure 3(c) where
and Mukherjee proposed a lattice spring based computa- minimum microcrack formation occurs. This lattice-spring
tional methodology that is capable of estimating initiation, based technique was later extended to study the impact
nucleation and propagation of microcracks [27]. Small of operating temperature on mechanical degradation of
strain small displacement analysis along with single-phase graphite based anode active particles [32]. By incorporat-
transport of lithium within graphite electrode was as- ing nonlinear strain-displacement relations, the lattice
sumed in that study. Figure 3(a) demonstrates the evolu- spring technique has been modified to model the
tion of lithium concentration and subsequent mechanical microcrack formation and propagation within high capaci-
degradation predicted by this technique. An energy ty anode materials, which experience severe volume

Figure 3

(a) (b)
x 10–5 x 104 0.3
a/D0=0.4
1 0.2

Y–Coordinate [μm]
2
0.5 0.1

0 0
1.5
–0.1
–0.5
–0.2
–1 1
–0.3
–1 0 1 –0.2 0 0.2
x 10–5 X–Coordinate [μm]
(c)
101
Fracture
Zone
C-Rate

100

Some
No Fracture Zone Damage
Occurs
10–1
10–1 100 101 102
Particle diameter (μm)
Current Opinion in Chemical Engineering

(a) Lithium concentration and microcrack formation in a graphite active particle, which experiences small volume change during the delithiation
process [27]. (b) Mechanical degradation observed inside silicon active particles during lithiation and subsequent high volume expansion [41]. (c)
A phase map between rate of operation and size of active particle showing the regions where minor, a little bit and severe mechanical
degradation occurs [27].
Adopted from Refs. [27,41].

www.sciencedirect.com Current Opinion in Chemical Engineering 2016, 13:82–90


86 Energy and environmental engineering

expansion [41]. The governing expression adopted to [44]. Mechanical properties of lithiated tin and silicon
solve this problem is: alloy obtained using DFT calculation indicates that, as the
Z Z amount of lithium increases, Young’s modulus decreases
tþDt
t
tþDt t
Sij dt eij d V  tþDt
t Fi dtþDt
t ui d t A ¼ tþDt R (3) along with ductile to brittle transition [45,46]. Anisotropic
tV tA
and lithium concentration dependent mechanical param-
eters for lithium-cobalt-oxide have been estimated [47].
Here, tV and tA corresponds to the volume at the previous Interfacial strengths of silicon/copper and silicon/graphite
equilibrium configuration, tþDt t Sij is the 2nd Piola–Kirchh- have been estimated based on first-principle calculations
off stress tensor, tþDt
t e ij is the Green-Lagrange strain to investigate the mechanical stability of silicon during the
tensor, tþDt
t F i is the externally applied force, tþDt
t ui is lithiation/delithiation process [48,49]. For materials used
t + Dt
the displacement and R is the residual (which is in lithium-ion batteries, a comprehensive list of mechani-
usually considered to be zero). Microcrack evolution in cal parameters, as a function of SOC, obtained from ab-
silicon active particles during lithiation process has been initio calculations has been reported [44].
demonstrated in Figure 3(b). Phase field based computa-
tional methodology has been developed that is capable of Influence of microstructure
simulating simultaneously the propagation of crack fronts In most of the macrohomogeneous degradation models,
as well as flow of electrolyte through the spanning cracks simplifying scenarios such as spherical active particles
[42]. Cohesive zone based electrochemical model has also with uniform size through the electrode are considered.
been proposed to capture the delamination between The influence of electrode microstructure heterogeneity
binder and active particle during lithiation–delithiation is expected to play an important role in the degradation
process [43]. phenomena. Recently, Chen et al. [15,50] computa-
tionally studied the effect of microstructural variability on
The mathematical models discussed till now require the chemical and mechanical degradation in Lithium-ion
several mechanical properties as input parameters. Even battery electrodes. For the study of SEI formation, Chen
though some mechanical properties (Young’s modulus, and Mukherjee [15] developed an electrode microstruc-
shear modulus) of common materials (graphite, silicon, ture-aware model to observe the spatial variation of SEI
tin) are available in literature, majority of the alloy materi- formation. The essential concept of this model is sche-
als encountered during lithiation are relatively new with matically shown in Figure 4. This study reveals that the
unknown properties. Ab-initio calculations using density SEI growth rate changes with particle size and morpholo-
functional theory (DFT) are useful in estimating the gy, and hence the importance of electrode microstructural
parameters for several new cathode and anode materials variation on the degradation mode. In addition, the

Figure 4

(c) Impedance Model


20 ε = 0.5
ε = 0.45
16 ε = 0.4
–Z(ω)′′ (Ω cm )
2

ε = 0.35
1 mHz
12
(a) Cycling of Active Material 100 Hz
0.1 MHz
• Lithiation/Delithiation 8
• Side Reaction
4
δSEI
0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40
Z(ω)′ (Ω cm2)
Rs
State of charge
and SEI thickness
Active Material
Binder
SEI
(b) Electrode Microstructure Electrolyte
Current Opinion in Chemical Engineering

Schematic diagram of the microstructure-aware model, which considers the morphological effect of carbon active material [15]. (a) The
implementation of SEI formation model is on the interface between active particle and electrolyte inside the reconstructed electrode
microstructure. (b) The reconstructed microstructure, which includes active material, binder, SEI layer, and electrolyte. The calculated state-of-
charge and SEI layer thickness are input to the impedance model. (c) The example of impedance response. The radius of first semi-circle
corresponding to the SEI resistance, the radius of second semi-circle circle corresponding to the charge transfer resistance, and the slope of
impedance tail corresponding to the solid-phase diffusion resistance.
Adopted from Ref. [15].

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Degradation phenomena in lithium-ion battery electrodes Chen, Barai and Mukherjee 87

resistance increase also corroborates well with the Bru- [55] and Huang et al. [56] did not include the electro-
nauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) specific surface area of chemical reactions, which cannot capture the impedance
graphite active particle suggested by the experimental variation during cycling. To include the growth of SEI
results of Martin et al. [51]. Chen et al. [50] also integrat- during battery cycling, Xie et al. [57] and Chen et al. [15]
ed the diffusion induced damage model with stochastical- integrated the EIS model with the electrochemical mod-
ly reconstructed electrode microstructures. Inside the el. The SEI film growth during cycling is coherently
electrode, the microcrack density was observed to vary coupled with the electrochemical reaction on the inter-
with particle size, charge/discharge rate and temperature. face between active material and electrolyte. With the
coupling, the evolution of impedance during battery
A typical electrode microstructure includes not only the cycling is observed. The model developed by Chen
active particles, but also conductive additives and binders. et al. [15] further includes the influence of microstruc-
Due to the interaction between individual active particles, ture on the formation of SEI and its corresponding
microstructure significantly impacts the extent of mechan- impedance response. The schematic diagram of the mod-
ical degradation observed within lithium-ion batteries. el is as shown in Figure 4. The spatial electrochemical
Finite element based analysis in mesoscale level indicates properties distribution, such as SEI thickness, was simu-
that stresses evolve from small-scale particle features and lated from mesoscale microstructure-aware model, and
lithium concentration gradients [52]. Taking into consid- the calculated result was used as inputs to the EIS model.
eration the anisotropic swelling of active particles, it has From the results, the electrode resistance contributed by
been demonstrated that maximum stress within electrode SEI formation is affected by particle morphology, inter-
occurs due to inter-particle interactions [52]. Incorporation facial area, and electrode porosity. Similar to the SEI
of the impact of hydrostatic stress on lithium transport formation, Chen et al. [50] developed a model, which
results in significantly smaller magnitude of concentration integrated the diffusion induced damage model and
gradient, and subsequently reduced mechanical degrada- impedance model. This model successfully captured
tion [53]. Using the pseudo 2D porous electrode theory the influence of microcrack on the impedance response.
model, increased microcrack evolution has been observed The influence of microcracks is mainly on the solid-phase
within the active particles located close to the separator diffusion resistance and charge transfer resistance.
[12]. An optimal charging protocol has been developed to
minimize the intercalation-induced stress within the ac- Acoustic emission
tive materials [54]. Proper distribution of particles within Acoustic emission (AE) is a useful nondestructive tech-
the electrode has the potential to minimize capacity fade nique for estimating state of health for lithium-ion batter-
induced by mechanical degradation. ies. Energy gets released during microcrack formation,
chemical reaction with lithium or gas evolution, which
Simulation-driven diagnostics travels through the cell as a stress wave (as shown in
Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy Figure 5(a–d)). The essence of acoustic emission tech-
As mentioned, the SEI thin layer increases the kinetic nique is to detect these traveling waves using ultrasound
resistance for electrochemical reaction. To study the measurement [58]. Depending on the frequency of
variation of internal resistance due to SEI growth, the detected signal, it is possible to determine the mode of
electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) is a pow- degradation. Low frequency signals (20–100 kHz) are
erful tool. Meyer et al. [55] and Huang et al. [56] devel- usually associated with gas generation or SEI formation;
oped a numerical model, which include the influence of whereas, high frequency signals (100–300 kHz) are gen-
the thickness of SEI layer. The expression of the imped- erated because of microcrack nucleation [59]. Acoustic
ance response is shown below. time-of-flight experiment can measure the state-of-charge

1 1
Y ¼ ¼ þ jvC film (4)
Z Rct;1 þ ðRpart =Y s Þ=1 þ jvC dl;1 ðRct;1 þ Rpart =Y s Þ þ Rfilm þ Rct;2 =1 þ jvRct;2 C dl;2

where Rct,1 and Rpart/Ys are the charge transfer and diffu- and state-of-health for any closed battery due to change
sion resistance between the solid phase and SEI layer. in density and elastic modulus of cathode and anode
Rfilm and Cfilm are SEI resistance and capacitance, respec- materials during charge and discharge process [58]. Acous-
tively. tic emission technique was first applied on lithium-man-
ganese-oxide cathode active particles to estimate the
This EIS model treats SEI resistance as a layer resistance, mechanical degradation during lithiation–delithiation
and the resistance is a function of film thickness according cycles [60]. Evolution of microcracks within silicon active
to the ohm’s law. The EIS model proposed by Meyer et al. particles has also been detected using AE techniques [61].

www.sciencedirect.com Current Opinion in Chemical Engineering 2016, 13:82–90


88 Energy and environmental engineering

Figure 5 the displacement fU g, velocity fU˙g and acceleration fU˙g


for each of the nodes in the lattice-spring network:
Stress waves generate due
to mechanical fracture ½ M fU¨g þ ½C fU˙g þ ½K fU g ¼ fF g (5)
(a) (b) Actuator Here, ½ M  signifies the mass matrix, ½C  indicates the
damping matrix, ½K  is the stiffness matrix for the dynamic
lattice spring network, and fFg corresponds to the force
vector due to concentration gradient induced load. As
demonstrated in Figure 5(e), under the assumption of
brittle fragmentation, saturation in microcrack evolution
was observed after the first few cycles. By appropriate
calibration and usage of AE, it is possible to use this
Electrode microstructure
technique for early detection and diagnosis of degradation
Single particle
and safety concerns in lithium-ion batteries under abuse
under delithiation scenarios.
(d)
rin
g (c)
Ax
ial
Sp Conclusion and outlook
This article provides an overview of the modeling of the
er
chemo-mechanical degradation phenomena and high-
mp
Da lights some of the recent progress in the simulation-
ng driven degradation diagnostics in lithium-ion battery
pri
rS
Sh
ea electrodes. The detrimental effect of SEI and microcrack
formation on the capacity fade and impedance rise has
(e) been reported from a modeling perspective. The recently
0.3
Acceleration/Fraction Broken Bonds

4C reported SEI models provide new insights into the SEI


0.2 growth and resulting impact on the electrochemical prop-
erties and capacity loss. These models reveal that the SEI
0.1 formation is affected by temperature, state-of-charge,
layer morphology, and electrode microstructure. The
0 effects of SEI formation on the potential drop, cell
temperature, and stress generation have also been
–0.1
addressed in the recent models. Importance of mechani-
cal degradation in determining the life of lithium-ion
batteries has been comprehensively studied using analyt-
–0.2
c=10c0 ical, finite element and lattice spring based models. Two-
4 Cycles
phase transport of lithium, large volume expansion and
–0.3
0 2000 4000 6000 anisotropic swelling during lithiation can be considered as
Time [sec] major factors for severe microcrack formation in active
Current Opinion in Chemical Engineering particles. Recent developments in the simulation-driven
degradation diagnostics (i.e. electrochemical impedance
(a) Computational reconstruction of an electrode microstructure. (b) response and acoustic emission) have been highlighted
Zoomed in view of an electrode active particle spherical in shape. (c) which are expected to provide virtual probing and prog-
Discretization of the active particle using lattice spring methodology.
nostics of lithium-ion battery life and health.
(d) Demonstration of the axial spring, shear spring and the damper
that connects any two adjacent nodes within the lattice spring
network. (e) Acoustic emission spectra (black lines) and cumulative Acknowledgements
strain energy released (red line) during delithiation of a graphite active Financial support from NSF, grant no. 1438431, is gratefully acknowledged.
particle at 4C [62]. The authors also acknowledge Elsevier, Electrochemical Society, Materials
Adopted from Ref. [62]. Research Society, and Royal Society of Chemistry for the figures reproduced
in this article from the referenced publications of their respective journals.

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