Development of a property forecast tool for flexible compositions of Li-ion batteries, including raw material availability and price forming

In today's world full of rigorous government measures regarding the fuel economy and a large EV and smart device market emerging from it, batteries represent a pioneering technology used as storage for renewable energies such as wind and solar. More precisely, the Li-ion family of batteries has experienced an exponential growth in sales. Having high energy density, these batteries are also well suited for mobile devices such as wearables, smartphones, tablets, cameras, notebooks and electric vehicles.[1] However, the technology has not completely matured yet and there is still a lot of space for improvements and new discoveries. This thesis considers the composition of lithium-ion batteries together with the global distribution and economical aspects of materials used. The components of Li-ion cells of different cell formats (e.g. 18650, 21700) were investigated together with their physical and chemical properties. Through this process, an interactive tool for calculating costs, cell parameters and quantity of active materials was developed. The main purpose of the tool was to enable a user to input data such as thicknesses of electrodes, together with the capacity of the cell and output how much material is needed for such electrodes and what energy density is achieved. These parameters, such as the mass of active material, were linked to a cost calculator, determining the costs of a single cell. The calculator is useful for further research purposes on Li-ion batteries, as the input variables can be modified in according to the user's preferences, whereas cost determination is useful for sales planning and battery manufacturing.