Future Days Battery Edition recap: How advanced analytics are transforming battery development

On May 21, Malvern Panalytical hosted the Future Days: Focus on Battery virtual event, featuring a range of speakers from across industry and academia. Read on for a recap of Umesh Tiwari and Lillian Arbenz’s session on analytical solutions that are revolutionizing battery research and quality control.

Looking for the video? Watch the recording of this session and more from Future Days: Battery Edition here.

Summary and Q&A

As electric vehicle demand soars and battery technology advances rapidly, manufacturers face the challenge of producing higher-performing batteries at scale while maintaining quality and safety. The solution lies in sophisticated analytical tools that can characterize materials at every stage – from raw material mining to final recycling.

Malvern Panalytical’s comprehensive analytical suite analyses ten critical parameters that determine battery performance. These include particle size, shape, porosity, surface area, density, stability, crystal structure, and elemental composition, and these measurements directly impact energy density (how far your electric car can go), power density (how fast it can charge), and cycle life (how long the battery lasts).

The real breakthrough comes from integrating these analytical capabilities directly into manufacturing workflows. Take NMC cathode production: precise elemental analysis of liquid precursors determines whether you’ll get the desired 8-1-1 chemistry. After co-precipitation and sintering, comprehensive characterization ensures the final material meets specifications before it ever reaches a battery cell.

During their presentation, Umesh and Lillian took a closer look at the instruments that provide this comprehensive, integrated characterization. Their impact is substantial: better analytical control means batteries with longer range, faster charging, and improved safety. As battery technology evolves toward new chemistries and manufacturing processes, these analytical solutions provide the foundation for understanding and controlling the material properties that determine success.

Below are key questions and answers from this session.

How do you balance energy density versus power density in particle design?

It’s about optimized combinations. Large particles give you energy density and cycle life, while smaller particles provide power density for fast charging. Real applications often require carefully formulated mixtures of different particle sizes to achieve both characteristics.

What makes in-operando XRD different from conventional battery testing?

Conventional testing tells you how a battery performs, but in-operando XRD shows you exactly what’s happening structurally during operation. You can watch crystal structure changes in real-time and correlate them with performance data to understand specific degradation mechanisms.

How accurate is XRF compared to traditional ICP analysis for battery materials?

With proper calibration standards – like the NMC-specific standards developed in our Nottingham laboratory – XRF can match or exceed ICP accuracy for battery materials, with the additional benefit of faster analysis times suitable for production environments.

What role does temperature play in battery analysis?

Temperature dramatically affects battery behavior. Our in-operando capabilities from -10°C to 70°C reveal how thermal conditions impact structural evolution and internal resistance. For example, LFP batteries show dramatically increased voltage-phase hysteresis at 0°C compared to 30°C.

How do online analytical systems integrate with existing production?

Systems like Insitec for particle sizing and Epsilon Xflow/Xline for elemental analysis connect directly to production equipment such as reactor tanks, classifier mills, and coating lines. They provide real-time feedback for immediate process adjustments, transforming manufacturing from reactive to predictive quality control.

What’s the biggest challenge in scaling battery analytics from lab to production?

Moving from laboratory analysis to online process control requires robust, automated systems that can provide reliable data 24/7 in industrial environments. The key is maintaining analytical quality while achieving the speed and reliability needed for production-scale operations.

Watch the recording of this session and more from Future Days: Battery Edition here.