News

Computer-generated imagery of the vacuum-compatible operando battery cell in an explosion view was developed in OpMetBat. The specific design allows for the exchange of cell windows to address the different probes used in the project.

 Live insights into the operation of batteries under metrological aspects for developing energy storage systems that meet Green Deal targets

The European Green Deal targets net zero CO₂ emissions of greenhouse gases in Europe by 2050, specifying zero emissions from new cars by 2035.  To meet this ambitious target, improvements in such things as battery performance and lifetime must be improved.

However, innovations in new battery materials and technologies are hampered by the inability of industry to reliably characterise a battery’s structure or chemistry in an operating environment (‘operando’). Most battery degradation studies are performed post-mortem, using ex-situ methods where the cell is disassembled, leading to chemical modification which can distort the result.

The European Metrology Partnership project Operando metrology for energy storage materials (21GRD01, OpMetBat) is working to address this problem by establishing traceable, validated and quantitative operando methodology for energy storage materials suitable for use in battery systems.

The project has released four short videos outlining the work being performed in the project.

• Traceable ex situ characterisation of high-capacity energy storage materials (1.13 min).
• Establishing good practice guide for current operando spectroscopy and diffraction methods (4.09 min).
• Development of novel dynamic electrochemical analysis approaches for combination with operando spectroscopy and dimensional metrology (3.00 min).
• Development of novel operando instrumentation and hybrid methodologies for multi-parameter characterisation (4.10 min).

Due to finish in 2025 the project has already produced two new cell designs for operando spectroscopy which have been tested electrochemically using benchmark lithium-ion battery materials and have been shown to exhibit excellent cycling performance and repeatability.

The methodologies, instruments and greater knowledge of energy storage materials being developed in OpMetBat will, amongst other things, aid the transition to hybrid or electric vehicles, helping to underpin Europe’s energy transition.

The coordinator of the project Burkhard Beckhoff (PTB) said about the project:

“In various activities, the OpMetBat project aims to develop foundations for standardization via best practice guides so that analytical and dimensional information from various characterization methods can contribute to the quantitative recording of transport and conversion processes in batteries in order to correlate them with electrochemical data. Effective measures against degradation processes require knowledge of the composition and chemical bonding states at battery interfaces, preferably under operando conditions, which requires further qualification of the characterization techniques capable of this.”

This Metrology Partnership project has received funding from the European Partnership on Metrology, co-financed by the European Union Horizon Europe Research and Innovation Programme and from the Participating States.

Want to hear more about EURAMET?

Sign up for EURAMET newsletters and other information

Follow us on LinkedIn and X/Twitter