Clarification of performance degradation of 20 Ah LIB pouch cell after use in electric bus

Abstract Herein, performance degradation of pouch type of 20 A h lithium ion battery from electric bus is clarified after a classification using the resistance value from A to D grade. The obtained cells are carefully disassembled to produce cathode, anode, and separator. Scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive spectroscopy analysis reveal that morphological change of electrode mostly occur in the anodes surface in D-grade cells, while cathodes of all the grades mostly remain similar. Although the change of crystalline structure of all electrodes is negligible, a growth of solid-electrolyte interphase film mostly happen in the D-grade anodes, which is confirmed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy analysis. Furthermore, the degradation of cycle and rate performance happen in the anode of D-grade cells, whereas the cathodes remain invariant irrespective of grade. Furthermore, the disassembled separators exhibit that the Gurley number of separators is commonly increased in the used cells.