Laser surface cleaning-based method for electric vehicle battery remanufacturing

The global impact of carbonaceous emissions from the internal combustion engine has created a huge incentive for the auto-industry and the general public to move from the internal combustion engines to the electric vehicles. The auto-industry has responded positively to the challenge by producing electric vehicles such as Nissan Leaf and Chevy Volt. However, the market penetration of these vehicles has been very dismal. The actual sales of the vehicles have been very far below the projected sales. Cost and periodic battery replacement have been indicated in many reports as the issues hampering widespread adoption of the electric vehicles. Experimental studies and theoretical modeling have shown that formation of passive solid electrolyte interface (SEI) layers on battery electrodes causes the fast capacity loss in the EV battery. This research study developed process to recover battery electrodes from the degraded EV battery for purpose of remanufacturing of the battery. Understanding of the capacity loss is essential for the development of EV battery remanufacturing. The study provided detailed degradation processes of the batteries, and made use of laser surface cleaning method to remove the passive SEI layers from the surfaces of the battery electrodes. The laser ablation of SEI was carried out in order to recover the battery electrodes. The electrode surfaces were characterized by analytical tools before and after the laser ablation of SEI to provide information about the morphological and structural changes. Electrochemical measurements were carried out to determine functional properties and performances of the recovered EV battery electrodes