What is a soft short in a lithium ion battery?

Soft-shorts are diagnosable but also transient, and not every technique works for a given battery system. Soft-shorts could be anything from a forest of lithium growths accounting for >95% of the current flow to a thin dendrite in a crack or grain boundary that only decreases the cell impedance by 10%.

Are soft-shorts a problem in lithium ion batteries?

Although most research focuses on preventing lithium metal dendrites that eventually short the battery, the nature of these shorts remains elusive. Soft-shorts, in particular, receive little attention or are not recognized, even in published data.

What are soft-shorts in solid-state batteries?

However, soft-shorts are small, highly variable, and transient short-circuits that can lead to misguided data interpretation and precede permanent battery failure. This work presents numerous characterizations of soft-shorts in solid-state batteries along with modeling of soft-short dynamics.

Are soft shorts a permanent failure in a battery?

Researchers at Argonne have conducted a comprehensive study of soft shorts, a phenomenon that is an early step toward permanent failure in a battery. An Argonne team developing materials for solid-state batteries took an unexpected detour to investigate tiny short-circuits known as soft-shorts.

What is a soft short circuit?

On the other hand, soft-shorts—known alternatively as “micro short circuits,” 5 “soft breakdown,” 15 “dynamic short-circuits,” 16,17 “internal short circuits,” 18 or undifferentiated from hard-shorts at all—are more elusive in both definition and identification.

Are soft-short batteries dynamic?

The team’s further examination revealed that soft-shorts have very dynamic behavior. They often form, disappear, and reform in just microseconds or milliseconds. “This is an important takeaway for battery researchers,” said Counihan. “With typical battery testing in the lab, researchers may only measure voltage every minute or so.