Scientists claim 'foolproof' ID for lithium batteries

Researchers in Japan say they have developed a way to use the magnetic fields to identify lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) and help detect counterfeit and low-quality copies.

The widespread adoption of battery technologies for electric vehicles, smartphones and other devices has created massive demand for LIBs, but at the same time, an opportunity for counterfeit or low-quality batteries being inveigled into the supply chain in search of illicit profit. And these low-quality LIBs can have serious consequences in fires, explosions, and equipment failures.

"Traditional safeguards like barcodes or [integrated circuit] chips? Easily faked or swapped," says the researchers from the University of Tsukuba and Honda.

They have proffered what they claim is a "game-changing" idea, namely harnessing the invisible magnetic fields generated by the batteries themselves during charge-discharge cycles. The patterns are unique to each LIB, allowing them to be distinguished by strategically positioning magnetic sensors

Building on prior non-destructive tech for spotting battery faults, their research pioneers magnetic analysis to authenticate LIBs even while they are installed within EVs, which they say ensures safety without invasive checks.

Their study – published in the journal Green Energy and Intelligent Transportation – was carried out on prismatic (rectangular), stackable LIBs commonly found in EVs, and was able to identify individual cells in a battery pack.

"Imagine EVs that self-verify their batteries at startup, flashing a warning if a counterfeit sneaks in – stopping disasters before they start," says a press release accompanying the study.

"This magnetic ID system could integrate into battery management systems (BMS), enhancing state-of-health…tracking alongside voltage and temperature monitoring. Practically, it could standardise safety protocols for global fleets, enabling traceability from factory to road and fostering innovations like vehicle-to-grid energy sharing, where authenticated batteries ensure grid stability."

National policies encouraging the adoption of EVs suggest that systems to ensure the authenticity of LIBs will only become more and more important.

In Japan, the target for passenger car sales is set to be 100 per cent EVs by 2035, including fuel cell vehicles, while France and the UK have policies to ban the sale of gasoline and diesel vehicles by 2040.

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