State-of-health monitoring of 18650 4S packs with a single-point impedance diagnostic

Abstract The state-of-health (SOH) of Li-ion batteries and battery packs must be monitored effectively for abuse to prevent failure and accidents. In a previous publication, we described a single-point impedance diagnostic method for detecting damage in single prismatic lithium polymer rechargeable cells subjected to overcharge abuse. We now determine whether the single-point impedance diagnostic method is applicable to 4S battery packs. At 316 Hz, commercial 18650 LiCoO 2 cells are determined to have the least change in impedance response when cycled between 3.0 and 4.2 V, for states-of-charge (SOC) of 0–100%. The impedance response of single cells at 316 Hz changes dramatically during overcharge (SOC = 125%), presumably due to change in their solid electrolyte interface (SEI) layers at the electrodes. When a single cell is purposely subjected to such overcharge abuse and then integrated into a 4S pack with 3 other healthy cells, the impedance response of the 4S pack at 316 Hz also changes, despite variances in the impedance response of each of the 3 healthy cells. The results suggest that this single-point impedance method could serve as a diagnostic in an all-inclusive battery management system to identify overcharge abuse of single cells without individual cell monitoring.