Stochastic Simulation Model for the 3D Morphology of Composite Materials in Li-Ion Batteries

Battery technology plays an important role in energy storage. In particular, lithium– ion (Li-ion) batteries are of great interest, because of their high capacity, long cycle life, and high energy and power density. However, for further improvements of Li-ion batteries, a deeper understanding of physical processes occurring within this type of battery, including transport, is needed. To provide a detailed description of these phenomena, a 3D representation is required for the morphology of composite materials used in Li-ion batteries. In this paper, we develop a stochastic simulation model in 3D, which is based on random marked point processes, to reconstruct real and generate virtual morphologies. For this purpose, a statistical technique to fit the model to 3D image data gained by X-ray tomography is developed. Finally, we validate the model by comparing real and simulated data using image characteristics which are especially relevant with respect to transport properties.