Modeling and Simulation of Piezoelectrically Driven Self-Charging Lithium Ion Batteries

Self-charging lithium ion batteries (SCLIBs) that hybridize mechanical energy harvesting and storage processes into one process can be fabricated using a piezoelectric polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) film as a separator in lithium ion batteries. In this paper, the deintercalation reaction at LiCoO₂ and intercalation reaction at graphite were studied under an internal piezoelectric field using density functional theory. It was found that the internal piezoelectric field applied on the anode can increase intercalation energies and diffusion behavior, at the same time, and the internal piezoelectric field facilitates the deintercalation reaction at the cathode. The simulation results revealed the self-charging mechanism of SCLIBs, in which the piezoelectric potential can assist the deintercalation and intercalation proccesses at the cathode and anode upon self-charging, which may be responsible for the experimentally observed efficiency of SCLIBs.