How much does a lithium-ion battery self-discharge?

When the battery is in an open circuit state, the phenomenon of the stored power being consumed spontaneously is called the self-discharge of the battery, also known as the battery's charge retention capacity.That is, under certain environmental conditions, the battery's ability to store power is maintained.

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In theory, the electrodes of the battery in the state of charge are in a thermodynamically unstable state, and physical or chemical reactions will spontaneously occur inside the battery, resulting in the loss of chemical energy of the battery.

Self-discharge is also one of the important parameters to measure battery performance. Different types of battery self-discharge factors and sizes are the same.The self-discharge rate of lithium batteries is slightly better than that of lead-acid batteries and significantly better than that of nickel-metal hydride batteries.

When a lithium-ion battery is not in use, it will lose some of its charge. This is known as self-discharge and it's a natural process that occurs with all batteries. Study shows that batteries happens to discharge even faster when the battery isn't being used properly or stored in suboptimal conditions.

Self-discharge has an impact on how you can use your battery and how long you can store it before it reaches the end of its useful life. The good news is there are some things you can do to slow down the self-discharge rate and get more out of your lithium ion battery, no matter how often you plan to use it. Here are the basics about Lithium Battery Self-discharge.

Spontaneous discharge of a charged battery

Self-discharge is a phenomenon in batteries. Self-discharge decreases the shelf life of batteries and causes them to have less than a full charge when actually put to use.[1]

How fast self-discharge in a battery occurs is dependent on the type of battery, state of charge, charging current, ambient temperature and other factors.[2] Primary batteries are not designed for recharging between manufacturing and use, and thus to be practical they must have much lower self-discharge rates than older types of secondary cells. Later, secondary cells with similar very low self-discharge rates were developed, like low-self-discharge nickel'metal hydride cells.

Self-discharge is a chemical reaction, just as closed-circuit discharge is, and tends to occur more quickly at higher temperatures. Storing batteries at lower temperatures thus reduces the rate of self-discharge and preserves the initial energy stored in the battery. Self-discharge is also thought to be reduced as a passivation layer develops on the electrodes over time.

Typical self-discharge by battery type

References

Further reading

• Wu and White, "Self-Discharge Model of a Nickel-Hydrogen Cell." Journal of the Electrochemical Society, 147 (3) 901-909 ()

• Battery dischargers Description and treatment of sulphated batteries

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