No abstract

The widespread adoption of battery electric vehicles (BEVs) is thought to be hindered mainly by the achievable driving range, the cost, and the lifetime of the batteries. In addition, longdistance travel with BEVs is commonly viewed as cumbersome and time consuming due to long recharging times. Many BEVs recently introduced by various manufacturers solve the problem of driving range with big battery packs with more than 70 kWh of energy capacity. This also allows higher absolute charging power as the relative load for each battery cell remains small. Thus, a big car with a big battery can "recharge" more driving range per hour than a small car with a small battery. However, such big batteries are expensive, heavy, and not viable for smaller car models. To enable battery electric longdistance travel with minimal time penalty and maximum flexibility for drivers of small inexpensive electric car models, the batteries need to be able to recharge as quickly as possible. This would also allow people to own electric vehicles who do not have a personal parking space with their own charging port. Current electric vehicles mainly use lithium ion cell technology due to their high energy and power densities and potentially long lifetimes. [1,2] However, even the best state-of-the-art lithium ion cells suffer from various degradation mechanisms which limit their useful lifetime. [3] Parasitic side reactions of active materials and electrolyte components in the cell cause loss of usable cell capacity due to loss of mobile lithium ions and increasing internal resistance even if the cell is not used. [4] When a lithium ion cell is charged and discharged, different additional mechanisms damage the cell. Volume change of the anode and cathode active materials can cause particle cracking and thereby create fresh surface area which needs to be passivated. Moreover, it can lead to complete loss of electrical contact of active material particles to the current collector tabs. [3] Especially when charging a lithium ion cell, an additional and severely damaging effect can occur. If charging currents are too high or temperatures are too low, the intercalation of lithium ions into the anode active material can become too slow and lithium metal is deposited on the surface of the anode particles, so-called lithium plating. [3,5-8] Bare lithium metal will readily react with the electrolyte to form new passivating films that bind lithium ions irreversibly and increase the internal resistance of the cell. [7-9] This is known to drastically increase the aging rate and loss of usable capacity of a lithium ion cell. [8,9] It is also possible that lithium metal dendrites grow through the separator and create shorts in the cell, which can increase the self-discharge of the cell or even lead to thermal runaway. [5] Finding the best fast charging protocol for a given battery has been the focus of various publications. [10-20] The aim is to have a minimal charging time without increased aging or at least an

The lithium-ion battery is the most powerful energy storage technology for portable and mobile devices. The enormous demand for lithium-ion batteries is accompanied by an incomplete recycling loop for used lithium-ion batteries and excessive mining of Li and transition metals. The hyperaccumulation of plants represents a low-cost and green technology to reduce environmental pollution of landfills and disused mining regions with low environmental regulations. To examine the capabilities of these approaches, the hyperaccumulation selectivity of Alyssum murale for metals in electrode materials (Ni, Co, Mn, and Li) was evaluated. Plants were cultivated in a conservatory for 46 days whilst soils were contaminated stepwise with dissolved transition metal species via the irrigation water. Up to 3 wt% of the metals was quantified in the dry matter of different plant tissues (leaf, stem, root) by means of inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectroscopy after 46 days of exposition time. The lateral distribution was monitored by means of micro X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy and laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry, revealing different storage behaviors for low and high metal contamination, as well as varying sequestration mechanisms for the four investigated metals. The proof-of-concept regarding the phytoextraction of metals from LiNi0.33Co0.33Mn0.33O2 cathode particles in the soil was demonstrated.