The voltage of a lithium-ion battery is determined by the electrode potential. Voltage, also known as potential difference or potential difference, is a physical quantity that measures the energy difference of electric charges in an electrostatic field due to different potentials. The electrode potential of lithium-ion batteries is about 3V, and the voltage of lithium-ion batteries varies with different materials.

For example, a general lithium-ion battery has a nominal voltage of 3.7V and a full-charge voltage of 4.2V; a lithium iron phosphate battery has a nominal voltage of 3.2V and a full-charge voltage of 3.65V. In other words, the potential difference between the positive electrode and the negative electrode of a lithium-ion battery in practical use cannot exceed 4.2V, which is a requirement based on material and use safety.

If the Li/Li+ electrode is used as the reference potential, μA is the relative electrochemical potential of the negative electrode material, μC is the relative electrochemical potential of the positive electrode material, and Eg, the electrolyte potential range, is the difference between the lowest electron unoccupied energy level and the highest electron occupied energy level. So the maximum voltage of the lithium-ion battery is determined by μA、μC、Eg.

The difference between μA and μC is the open-circuit voltage (the highest voltage value) of the lithium-ion battery. When this voltage value is in the Eg range, the normal operation of an electrolyte can be ensured. Normal operation means that the lithium-ion battery moves back and forth between the positive and negative electrodes through the electrolyte, but does not undergo oxidation-reduction reactions with the electrolyte, So as to ensure the stability of the battery structure. The electrochemical potential of the positive and negative materials causes the electrolyte to work abnormally in two forms:

1. When the electrochemical potential of the negative electrode is higher than the lowest electron and unoccupied energy level of the electrolyte, the electrons of the negative electrode will be captured by the electrolyte, and the electrolyte will be oxidized, then the reaction product will form a solid-liquid interface layer on the surface of the negative electrode material particles. As a result, the negative electrode may be damaged.
2. When the electrochemical potential of the positive electrode is lower than the highest electron-occupied energy level of the electrolyte, the electrons in the electrolyte will be captured by the positive electrode and oxidized by the electrolyte. Then the reaction product forms a solid-liquid interface layer on the surface of the positive electrode material particles, resulting in the positive electrode may be damaged.

However, the possibility of damage to the positive or negative electrode is due to the existence of the solid-liquid interface layer, which prevents the further movement of electrons between the electrolyte and the positive and negative electrodes, and instead protects the electrode material.

That is to say, the lighter solid The liquid interface layer is protective. The premise of this protection is that the electrochemical potential of the positive and negative electrodes can slightly exceed the Eg interval, but not too much.

For example, the reason why most of the current lithium-ion battery anode materials use graphite is that the electrochemical potential of graphite related to Li/Li+ electrodes is about 0.2V, which slightly exceeds the Eg range (1V~4.5V), but because of its protective properties, the solid-liquid interface layer prevents the electrolyte from being further reduced, thus stopping the continuous development of the polarization reaction.

However, the 5V high-voltage cathode material is far beyond the Eg range of the current commercial organic electrolyte, so it is easily oxidized during charging and discharging. With the increase of charging and discharging times, the capacity decreases and the service life also decreases.

The reason why the open-circuit voltage of the lithium-ion battery is selected to be 4.2V is that the Eg range of the electrolyte of the existing commercial lithium-ion battery is 1V ~ 4.5V. If the open-circuit voltage is set to 4.5V, the output power of the lithium-ion battery may be increased, but it also increases the risk of battery overcharge, and the harm of overcharge has been explained by a lot of data, so there is no additional explanation here.

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For years, researchers have aimed to learn more about a group of metal oxides that show promise as key materials for the next generation of lithium-ion batteries because of their mysterious ability to store significantly more energy than should be possible. An international research team, co-led by The University of Texas at Austin, has cracked the code of this scientific anomaly, knocking down a barrier to building ultra-fast battery energy storage systems.

The team found that these metal oxides possess unique ways to store energy beyond classic electrochemical storage mechanisms. The research, published in Nature Materials, found several types of metal compounds with up to three times the energy storage capability compared with materials common in today’s commercially available lithium-ion batteries.

By decoding this mystery, the researchers are helping unlock batteries with greater energy capacity. That could mean smaller, more powerful batteries able to rapidly deliver charges for everything from smartphones to electric vehicles.

“For nearly two decades, the research community has been perplexed by these materials’ anomalously high capacities beyond their theoretical limits,” said Guihua Yu, an associate professor in the Walker Department of Mechanical Engineering at the Cockrell School of Engineering and one of the leaders of the project. “This work demonstrates the very first experimental evidence to show the extra charge is stored physically inside these materials via space charge storage mechanism.”

To demonstrate this phenomenon, the team found a way to monitor and measure how the elements change over time. Researchers from UT, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Waterloo in Canada, Shandong University of China, Qingdao University in China and the Chinese Academy of Sciences participated in the project.

At the center of the discovery are transition-metal oxides, which are compounds that include oxygen bonded with transition metals such as iron, nickel and zinc. Energy can be stored inside the metal oxides — as opposed to typical methods that see lithium ions move in and out of these materials or convert their crystal structures for energy storage. And the researchers show that additional charge capacity can also be stored at the surface of iron nanoparticles formed during a series of conventional electrochemical processes.

A broad range of transition metals can unlock this extra capacity, according to the research, and they share a common thread — the ability to collect a high density of electrons. These materials aren’t yet ready for prime time, Yu said, primarily because of a lack of knowledge about them. But the researchers said these new findings should go a long way in shedding light on the potential of these materials.

The key technique employed in this study, named in situ magnetometry, is a real-time magnetic monitoring method to investigate the evolution of a material’s internal electronic structure. It is able to quantify the charge capacity by measuring variations in magnetism. This technique can be used to study charge storage at a very small scale that is beyond the capabilities of many conventional characterization tools.

“The most significant results were obtained from a technique commonly used by physicists but very rarely in the battery community,” Yu said. “This is a perfect showcase of a beautiful marriage of physics and electrochemistry.”