Experimental Evidence on the Effect of Temperature on the Performance of a Lithium-Ion Battery

The significant changes resulting from the ongoing energy transition highlight the importance of energy sources and vectors. Among the latter, the electron is certainly the most important, therefore its efficient storage is a fundamental task. In this regard, lithium-ion batteries are currently the leading technology. In many applications these devices operate outdoors at temperatures below 0°C showing reduced performance due to lower ionic mobility. In recent years, several researchers have experimentally reproduced these operating conditions, looking for solutions that guarantee the maintenance of the desired performance. Based on this approach, an experimental set up was created to study these effects on commercial devices consisting of a single cell. The paper presents a preliminary investigation of a commercial LiFePO4 module with nominal voltage of 3.2 V and capacity of 23 Ah. For this module, in the temperature range -20 ÷ +55 °C, the open circuit voltage and the internal resistance were experimentally determined, both in the charging and discharging phases. Furthermore, in the temperature range between -20 °C and +10 °C, the improvements in performance resulting from the application of localized electric heating to the above-mentioned cell were evaluated.