Application-specific electrical characterization of high power batteries with lithium titanate anodes for electric vehicles

This study shows results of extensive experimental measurements performed on high power lithium titanate based batteries. Characterization tests are performed over a wide temperature range (−20 °C - +40 °C) by employing electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and modified hybrid pulse power characterization tests. Furthermore, the behavior of battery impedance parameters over the battery lifetime with regard to temperature, State-of-Charge and their influence on available battery power in an example of electric vehicles is discussed. Based on extracted parameters, a reduced order equivalent circuit model considering the nonlinearity of the charge transfer resistance is parametrized. The obtained results indicate that ohmic resistance increases with decreasing State-of-Charge while the shape of the curve remains almost constant over the battery lifetime. The total impedance determined at 1 mHz shows almost no dependence on State-of-Charge and remains constant over the whole State-of-Charge range. The necessity of considering the impact of the current dependence of the direct current resistance at least at low temperatures (i.e., below 0 °C) is confirmed. Moreover, by investigating the Butler-Volmer equation the behavior of exchange current density and symmetry factor is analyzed for various temperatures and State-of-Charges over the battery lifetime.