Faster and Durable: A Cell-to-System Validation of a Low-Degradation Fast-Charge Protocol for Li-Ion Batteries

Fast charging of Li-ion batteries remains a critical barrier for electric vehicle adoption due to parasitic reactions at the negative electrode, which irreversibly reduce lithium inventory, closely linked to graphite phase separation dynamics. This study presents a physics-based fast-charge protocol derived from a pseudo-two-dimensional phase-field electrochemical model that was rigorously calibrated and validated through teardown characterisation, galvanostatic cycling, and impedance spectroscopy on a commercial cylindrical battery. The model-informed protocol achieves charging from 20% to 80% state-of-charge within 15 min, outperforming both the manufacturer specification (18 min) and a commercial electric vehicle profile (25 min), while limiting capacity loss below 5% over 500 cycles. System-level simulations of a charging station demonstrate compatibility with current electric infrastructure and show significant improvements in throughput and users waiting time under realistic usage scenarios. The work demonstrates that exploiting internal cell physics through model-informed control can unlock high-rate charging without hardware modification, offering a viable path toward low-degradation fast charging.