Reversible lithium plating on working anodes enhances fast charging capability in low-temperature lithium-ion batteries

The low-temperature lithium plating on working anodes severely limits the fast-charging capability of lithium-ion batteries and brings serious lifespan degradations and potential safety hazards. However, strict control of lithium plating, which currently is the primary task of battery management, is very challenging to achieve and greatly limits the charging speed of rechargeable batteries. While by releasing the elastic and reversible lithium plating interval, superior charging performance can be obtained. In this contribution, we quantitively analyze the reversibility of lithium plating under various working conditions. The reversibility is not simply a matter of multiplying the quantity of lithium plating by a constant coefficient. Further, we propose a plating-weak fast charging (PWFC) strategy that keeps the charging rate relatively large throughout the charging process, therefore effectively reducing the charging duration at low temperatures. When lithium plating is necessary during fast charging, PWFC regulates high reversibility to avoid rapid degradation by fine-tuning the charging current that triggers the lithium plating, thereby breaking through the stereotypical limit of the plating-free boundary while achieving a 19.92% reduction in capacity loss after 70 cycles at 0 °C compared with the constant-current charging, or a 21.0% reduction in charging time compared with the plating-free charging. Strikingly, PWFC can guarantee the life of electric vehicles beyond the warranty period and further shorten the charging time in winter.