Feature: Power


Latest developments in battery technology


By Volker Schumann, General Manager for Battery Sales, Toshiba Electronics Europe B


attery technology is always in development, with solutions aimed at squeezing as much energy capacity as possible into the smallest of spaces


and at the lowest of prices. In addition to new battery technology developments, there are always efforts to optimise existing technologies, to provide better performance at a reduced total cost of ownership. As environmental pressure and


dwindling fossil fuel reserves drive the automotive industry to replace the internal combustion engine with electric propulsion, the battery pack becomes the defining element for vehicle range. Designers are being driven to produce batteries with ever more capacity per unit volume, whilst continuing to reduce the cost, measured in Euro/kWh. Tis is the right approach for vehicles that cover long distances and are charged less frequently. However, for applications such as railway,


marine or off-road heavy-duty vehicles, some alternative approaches can yield lower costs and greater performance. Instead of maximising battery capacity at the lowest cost, it is oſten more beneficial to optimise battery capacity with regular, fast re-charging – as enabled by Lithium Titanium Oxide, or LTO, technology.


LTO battery technology LTO technology has a fundamentally different chemical structure from other batteries, making it the most powerful and robust Lithium-ion (Li-ion) technology today. In LTO batteries, the anode is formed from Lithium Titanate Nanocrystals (Li4


Ti5 O12 ) instead of the


more common graphite powder. Te surface area of this material is thirty times greater than carbon’s. It avoids the challenge of fast reversible intercalation of Lithium ions into the carbon. Instead, the ions can easily occupy the voids in the crystal structure during charging, giving an LTO battery a much-reduced


26 February 2023 www.electronicsworld.co.uk


internal resistance that can support higher currents; see Figure 1. Te spinel structure of an LTO anode is considered “zero strain”, showing little (if any) volume change as Lithium ions are inserted and extracted. Tis gives excellent cycling stability of the battery. For example, even aſter 8000 cycles of continuous charge and discharge at 5o


C from 10% to 90% of the


full state-of-charge range, the latest high- power LTO cell from Toshiba maintains nearly 100% of its nominal capacity, with no discernible degradation. LTO gives a lower cell voltage of 2.3V


compared to the 3.6V of other Li-ion cells. Tis does lead to a lower specific energy, although LTO batteries can exceed 100Wh/kg, albeit lower than a comparable state-of-the-art Nickel-Manganese-Cobalt or Lithium-Iron-Phosphate battery cell. Tis reduction in cell voltage gives a safety margin that eliminates the risk of Li-metal plating. As a result, LTO cells are very safe and no Li dendrites are formed, even when fast charging at low temperatures.


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