Abstract
In the application of electric vehicles, LiNi0.8Mn0.1Co0.1O2 (NMC811)-a Ni-rich cathode has the potential of replacing LiNiMnCoO2 (NMC111) due to its high energy density. However, NMC811 features relatively poor structural and thermal stabilities, which affect its cycle life. This study aims to address the limited data availability research gap on NMC811 low-temperature degradation. We aged commercial 21700 NMC811 cells at 0 °C under 0.5 C and 1 C current rates. After 200 cycles, post-mortem visual, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy-dispersive X-ray (EDX) spectroscopy, the inspections of harvested electrodes were conducted. In just 200 cold cycles, capacity drops of 25% and 49% were observed in cells aged at 1 C and 0.5 C, respectively. The fast degradation at low temperatures is largely due to lithium plating at the anode side during the charging process. The surprisingly better performance at 1 C is related to enhanced cell self-heating. After subsequent 3-month storage, the cells that experienced 200 cycles at 0 °C and 0.5 C became faulty (voltage: ≈ 0 V), possibly due to cell lithium dendrites and micro short circuits. This work demonstrates that NMC811 suffers from poor cold ageing performance and subsequent premature end-of-life.