Due to their performance, which reaches mass and volume energy densities of around 240 Wh/kg and 600Wh/l, Li-ion batteries are seen as the sinews of war for the rapid development of electric vehicles and, in the longer term, for the storage - and therefore massive use - of renewable energies. The 2019 Nobel Prize for Chemistry crowned research in this field, and the all-out construction of gigafactories points to a spectacular expansion in annual battery production. This dynamic is designed to meet the ever-increasing global demand for batteries, with installed capacity forecast to exceed 100 GWh in the coming years.
However, the hype surrounding Li-ion batteries should not blind us to the fact that this technology still needs to be improved, in terms of energy density, lifespan, safety and environmental footprint. The research avenues associated with improving these various figures of merit will be briefly presented. We will then go into greater depth on the sustainability and eco-compatibility of batteries, which will serve to introduce the issue of battery diagnostics. This topic will be the backbone of the 2021 lectures. We'll be looking at the scientific and technical bases of diagnostics, the ultimate aim of which is to increase the reliability of batteries and thus enable them to be put to better use. The passive and non-passive aspects of diagnostics, which can be based on surface or core measurements, will be discussed. We'll start by looking back at the first hydrometry technique, dating back to 1887, which was used to determine the state of health of lead-acid batteries, before moving on to more sophisticated techniques.
