Fast Charging

Fast charging capabilities (full charging in 10 minutes or less) would drastically improve the commercial competitiveness of electric vehicles against their gas powered counterparts. Fully charging a 100 kWh battery pack in 10 minutes requires 600 kW of power to be delivered by the charging station and distributed to the battery pack by the vehicle. Managing this enormous amount of power efficiently and safely requires breakthroughs at the materials, systems, and electronics levels, and therefore presents an ideal challenge to be tackled with StorageX's interdisciplinary approach. Using results from one area to guide research in another, StorageX faculty work on:

• Developing fast charging algorithms that minimize electrochemical degradation (lithium metal plating, dendrite growth, particle fracture) within lithium-ion cells
• Pack-level modifications to improve power management and minimize degradation, such as integrating supercapacitors and developing advanced thermal management
• Developing new high-rate electrode materials and nanostructures
• Sensors to enable active feedback at the cell and module level during fast charging
• High power systems for the vehicle and charger station