The project “Amultiplex plasmonic battery sensor for improved battery control”, funded by theSwedish Energy Agency’s Battery Fund Program, has been finalized with positiveresults. Insplorion’s battery sensor and the underlying measurement technologyNanoPlasmonic Sensing (NPS) have been improved within the project. Among otherthings, the sensor’s long-term stability and reproducibility have beenenhanced.

The developmentwork has led to an improved integration of the sensor in coin cells, which hasmade it possible to obtain data with high statistics and reproducibility. Thechemical stability of the sensor, and thus its service life, has been improvedby coating the sensor with an ultra-thin, approximately 50 nm thick, layer of achemically stable polymer. Commercial electrodes and electrolytes have beenused to further increase the reproducibility of the data obtained. Within theframework of the project, the sensor signal has also been correlated withchemical processes, such as the loss of capacity and the state of charge of thecells. Measurements have mainly been performed on lithium ion whole and halfcells with graphite anodes and lithium iron phosphate (LFP) cathodes.

In this project,the first steps have been taken to develop a multiplex sensor for simultaneousmeasurements of chemical / structural changes and temperature changes, insidebattery cells, with a single fiber probe. Work on developing a multiplex sensorwill now continue at Insplorion.

“Now we have shown that we can measure the temperature inside the batterycell at the same time as chemical changes, which the market has demanded sincewe introduced our battery sensor. The greater accuracy achieved by measuringthe temperature inside the cell further strengthens our sensor’s contributionto optimizing the entire battery pack”, saysPatrik Dahlqvist, CEO of Insplorion.

The project wasfinanced by the Swedish Energy Agency’s Battery Fund Program and was acollaboration between Insplorion AB and Chalmers University of Technology. CEVTAB has conducted a market research within the project. The project has beensupported by a reference group consisting of representatives from AMTE PowerLtd (UK), CEVT AB (Sweden), Dukosi Ltd (UK) and SAFT Batteries (France).