Chapter Four · failure evidence
What Fuel Cell & Battery Cycling Protocols got wrong, from 49 dissertations
The evaluated records demonstrate that experimental cycling protocols and lifetime modeling methodologies often fail due to unexpected degradation mechanisms such as lithium plating, parasitic interphase growth, and chemical decomposition. Furthermore, standard test procedures, simplified thermal-electrochemical models, and unconstrained dispatch protocols frequently introduce diagnostic inaccuracies or accelerate cell capacity loss during dynamic operation. These records come from PhD theses at 17 institutions, 2021 to 2026. Each links to its thesis. They were extracted by language models reading the full text, so treat each as a lead to read, not a verdict.
Diagnostic and experimental testing protocols fail to accurately evaluate degradation during cell cycling
Standardised and rapid diagnostic protocols often introduce severe measurement artifacts, such as overestimating degradation rates or inverting performance rankings under realistic dynamic cooling. In other cases, early cycling transient instability and overlapping electrochemical reactions obscure true degradation mechanisms during capacity assessment.
Considered and rejected
Considered and rejected: Rejected simple capacity-limited (CL) half-cell cycling for evaluating foil stability because dynamic lithium inventory buildup obscured true degradation mechanisms in full cells
Design of composite foil anodes for lithium-ion batteries · UT Austin
Considered and rejected
Considered and rejected: Rejected using the 4-h Standard 145.2 capacity test because it overestimates degradation rate by up to 2.7 times due to initial fast degradation transient.
Ozone removal air cleaning devices : test method and performance assessment · UT Austin
Considered and rejected
Considered and rejected: Rejected the potentiometric battery entropy testing method due to test durations spanning multiple days per cell.
High-powered electric motorcycle integrated performance studies · University of Nottingham Repository
Tried and failed
standardised datasheet specifications and ambient convection testing applied to battery cell performance ranking. Outcome: did not generalise. Reason: rankings inverted under realistic thermal cooling and dynamic load conditions
Thermal characterisation and performance of cylindrical lithium-ion batteries · Imperial
Lost to a baseline
In LFP||Li capacity cycling at 0.1–1 C, the three-electrode coin cell yielded slightly lower capacity and higher variability between cycles compared to the standard two-electrode configuration.
NOVEL METHODS AND MECHANISTIC UNDERSTANDING OF BATTERY MATERIALS AND INTERFACES · Cornell
Considered and rejected
Considered and rejected: Rejected cyclic voltammetry (20 mV/s) for liquid cell degradation studies because high scan rate causes mass transport limitations and peak broadening, failing to match galvanostatic battery degradation
Towards reproducible lithium-ion battery cycling using liquid-phase transmission electron microscopy · EPFL
Considered and rejected
Considered and rejected: Rejected defining anionic redox reversibility as the ratio of discharge capacity to charge capacity, because transition metal and Ru reduction during discharge convolute the separate evaluation of oxygen redox reduction.
Considered and rejected
Considered and rejected: Discarded data from cycles 1 to 20 because discharge capacity shrinkage and temperature trends had not yet converged
Considered and rejected
Considered and rejected: Rejected relying on half-cell potential and chloride sampling for capacity rating because data fluctuated heavily and contradicted physical strand condition.
Experimental Investigations of Residual Strength and Repaired Strength of Corrosion Damaged Prestressed Bridge Beams · Virginia Tech
High-rate charging and unconstrained operational dispatch protocols induce accelerated battery degradation
Operating cycling protocols at high charging rates or sub-zero temperatures frequently triggers damaging phenomena like lithium plating and transport limitations. Additionally, energy management and dispatch protocols that omit battery state-of-charge constraints or enforce rigid setpoints cause progressive cell depletion and excessive cycling degradation.
Lost to a baseline
Room-temperature C/3 cycling of DMOHC cells caused lithium plating and failed compared to standard EC-based baseline electrolytes due to excessive viscosity.
Li-ion Cell Electrolytes For Enhanced Performance at High Temperatures · DalSpace
Tried and failed
high-current pulse charging protocol applied to low-temperature battery charging. Outcome: worse than baseline. Reason: severe lithium plating and transport limitations at sub-zero temperatures degraded cell lifetime faster than standard charging
Considered and rejected
Considered and rejected: Canonical generation-centric dispatch (GCD) model that disregards battery cycling degradation costs, leading to higher overall social costs and financial losses for storage.
Efficiency and Market Power in Electricity Markets with Inelastic Demand, Energy Storage, and Hybrid Energy Resources · JScholarship
Considered and rejected
Considered and rejected: Sequential/combined DP+PMP for speed planning and energy management co-optimization, rejected because omitting battery SoC constraints results in 5-33% higher fuel consumption on fast driving cycles
Predictive energy management of fuel cell electric trucks Prädiktives Energiemanagement für Brennstoffzellen-Lkw · DSpace-CRIS at TU Wien
Lost to a baseline
High loading cells at 20 °C cycled at C/2 reached 92% capacity retention at 6000 h, beaten by C/4 cycling (97%) and regular loading baseline (99%) due to Li plating
EXTENDED LIFETIME AND INCREASED ENERGY DENSITY STUDIES FOR LI-ION CELLS · DalSpace
Considered and rejected
Considered and rejected: Rejected using pure average-load forecast alone in the EMS without a battery SoC correction term, as high-load cycles led to progressive battery depletion.
Predictive power demand, energy and thermal management for fuel cell electric tractors · DSpace-CRIS at TU Wien
Considered and rejected
Considered and rejected: Restricting ES voltage smoothing to active power ramp rate control only (Technique I), rejected due to excessive battery cycling and lack of visibility into broader grid disturbances.
Considered and rejected
Considered and rejected: Rejected continuously targeting a strict 50% state-of-energy for battery ramp-rate smoothing, adopting a 40–60% SOE band instead to avoid excessive cycling, degradation, and conversion losses
Power Intermittency and Technoeconomic Performance of Solar Photovoltaic Systems With Energy Storage · DalSpace
Capacity forecasting and degradation models fail to predict battery aging across cycling horizons
Empirical and machine learning models often fail to extrapolate capacity fade across extended cycle horizons or across domain shifts between simulation and experiment. Omitting cycle-depth dynamics or relying on uncorrected single-feature signals leads to unphysical degradation trends and inaccurate remaining useful life estimates.
Tried and failed
differential capacity curve-fitting degradation analysis applied to elevated temperature battery aging data. Outcome: did not converge. Reason: fitting produced unphysical trends of increasing electrode capacity and decreasing loss of active material after extended cycling
Tried and failed
sequence-to-sequence LSTM for trajectory forecasting applied to long-term battery capacity degradation. Outcome: unstable. Reason: exhibited sudden initial prediction discontinuities and severe overestimation of degradation rates
Data-driven early prediction and modeling of lithium-ion battery capacity degradation · Iowa State
Tried and failed
low state-of-charge internal resistance feature applied to battery cycle life prediction across protocols. Outcome: did not generalise. Reason: formation temperature variations disrupted the correlation between resistance and lifetime
Tried and failed
delta learning from simulation to experiment applied to battery state of health estimation. Outcome: did not generalise. Reason: poor extrapolation when bridging domain shifts between simulation and experimental datasets
Computational and data-enabled approaches for modeling and prognostics of engineered systems · Iowa State
Tried and failed
Linearized degradation model approximation applied to Battery energy storage control. Outcome: worse than baseline. Reason: Omitted cycle-depth dynamics, causing unprofitable fluctuations compared to rainflow-based degradation modeling
Reinforcement learning for enhancing the stability and management of power systems with new resources · UT Austin
Tried and failed
transfer learning for long-term degradation prediction applied to battery state of health estimation. Outcome: did not generalise. Reason: model failed to extrapolate capacity loss during late-life aging phases beyond trained cycle horizons
Modeling and Simulation of Power System with High Penetration of Inverter-based Resources · Georgia Tech
Considered and rejected
Considered and rejected: Rejected using battery discharge capacity alone for RUL prediction because capacity oscillations cause inaccurate predictions.
Redox flow battery cycling protocols suffer from active species degradation and hydrodynamic losses
Redox flow cell cycling frequently suffers from irreversible chemical degradation of electroactive molecules and severe crossover accelerated by electrolyte flow. Furthermore, equal-volume remixing strategies fail to recover lost capacity when irreversible side-reaction drift occurs during cycling.
Tried and failed
transition metal coordination complexes as redox electrolytes applied to aqueous redox flow batteries. Outcome: unstable. Reason: rapid capacity fade caused by structural degradation of the coordination complex during flow cell cycling
Development of Iron Complex-based Aqueous Redox Flow Batteries for Large-scale Energy Storage · Harvard
Lost to a baseline
In the flow mode, HGO-BC composite membrane discharge capacity retention reached only 70% after 100 cycles compared to ~91% over 400 cycles in static mode due to electrolyte flow accelerating membrane disintegration and exacerbating crossover.
Highly concentrated electrolyte design for high-energy and high-power redox flow batteries · UT Austin
Tried and failed
Sequential multi-electron transfer with disparate redox potentials applied to redox flow battery active materials. Outcome: worse than baseline. Reason: Large potential splitting between electron transfer steps causes severe voltaic efficiency losses under current.
Tried and failed
introducing multiple ionic solubilizing groups to quinones applied to neutral aqueous organic redox flow batteries. Outcome: unstable. Reason: exhibited rapid chemical or electrochemical degradation leading to a high capacity fade rate during cycling
Development of Redox Organics for Aqueous Flow Batteries · Harvard
Tried and failed
equal-volume remixing of degraded electrolytes applied to redox flow battery capacity recovery. Reason: mixing spent posolyte and negolyte failed to provide significant capacity recovery due to irreversible side-reaction drift
Tried and failed
symmetric bipolar redox molecule cycling in batteries applied to single-molecule non-aqueous redox flow batteries. Outcome: unstable. Reason: both positive and negative redox states suffered rapid chemical degradation into unidentifiable electroactive species
The Synthesis and Application of 1,4-Dithiins, Thianthrenes, and Other Sulfur-Rich Scaffolds · MIT
Lost to a baseline
C60Fc2 without polarity switching experienced 1.01% capacity fade per cycle, performing worse than C60Fc1 at 0.33% per cycle.
Multi-Electron Charge Carriers for Next-Generation Flow Batteries · University of Nottingham Repository
Simplified thermal and equivalent circuit models fail under dynamic cycling conditions
Simplified equivalent circuit and zero-dimensional thermal models fail to capture nonlinear overpotentials and dynamic diffusion peaks during high-rate or transient cycling. Conversely, detailed multi-dimensional electrochemical models create excessive computational complexity, while static lookup tables fail as cell parameters drift with aging.
Tried and failed
constant thermal properties in dynamic heat transfer applied to battery thermal equivalent circuit modeling. Outcome: did not generalise. Reason: cumulative error over long transient cycles caused model divergence from experimental data
Thermal-managed oriented, multi-domain battery modelling and experimental validation. · Cranfield
Tried and failed
current-independent equivalent circuit model applied to dynamic battery voltage prediction. Outcome: did not generalise. Reason: linear circuit parameters failed to capture nonlinear overpotentials during high dynamic current rates and low state-of-charge
Tried and failed
lumped thermal model parameter estimation applied to battery degradation mode quantification. Outcome: no signal. Reason: High C-rate charging datasets produced weak, non-robust minima in the optimization objective function.
Considered and rejected
Considered and rejected: Rejected 1D/3D CFD engine and full P2D electrochemical battery models for cycle optimization due to excessive computational complexity, adopting quasi-static map and ECM models instead
Development of Innovative Methodologies to Support the Design of Connected and Electrified Vehicles · IRIS - POLITO - prod
Tried and failed
cell balancing during discharge applied to series-connected battery pack with thermal gradients. Outcome: worse than baseline. Reason: warmer cells shift to lower state of charge, reducing total pack energy without capacity gains
Tried and failed
zero-dimensional heat generation model without diffusion applied to degraded battery cells at high C-rates. Outcome: did not generalise. Reason: omitting diffusion dynamics smoothed out characteristic peaks and troughs under high operational rates
Considered and rejected
Considered and rejected: Offline fixed lookup-table parameterization across battery lifetime was rejected for HBS control because module parameter drift during degradation led to inaccurate SOC estimation and poor power allocation tracking.
An integrated battery unit regulation strategy · Cranfield
Initial formation and electrodeposition cycling protocols fail to build stable interphases
Protocols intended to form stable interphases can backfire by promoting parasitic secondary layer growth that increases cell impedance. Similarly, altered deposition or constant-potential formation routines fail to halt dendrite short-circuiting and cause severe active ion losses.
Tried and failed
slow initial nucleation current during electrodeposition applied to anode-free solid-state battery cycling. Outcome: no signal. Reason: did not improve cycling lifetime or prevent dendrite-induced short-circuiting during subsequent cycles
Probing Interfacial Dynamics in Solid-State Lithium Metal Batteries · Georgia Tech
Tried and failed
electrochemical cycling of solid electrolyte interfaces applied to symmetric solid-state lithium metal cells. Outcome: no signal. Reason: applied current consumed entirely by continuous parasitic interphase growth rather than metal deposition
Probing Interfacial Dynamics in Solid-State Lithium Metal Batteries · Georgia Tech
Tried and failed
slow formation charging rate applied to battery solid electrolyte interphase formation. Outcome: worse than baseline. Reason: extended time allowed secondary layer growth, yielding higher impedance and worse passivation than faster protocols
Tried and failed
constant-potential protocol for initial electrochemical interphase formation applied to lithium-ion battery cells. Outcome: unstable. Reason: caused severe irreversible active ion loss, capacity drop, and internal cell short-circuiting
Understanding and addressing the rate-limiting phenomena in energy-dense lithium-ion batteries · UT Austin
Left open by the authors
Problems the authors named and did not get to.
Left open
Test battery degradation and heterogeneity under dynamic EV power profiles and parallel string loads using coupled thermal-ECN simulation and experiments. Blocker: Requires battery pack cycling hardware/cyclers or unreleased parameterised pack models under dynamic drive cycles
Understanding the effects of heterogeneities on battery pack lifetime · Imperial
Left open
Address rapid degradation, poor fast-charging, thermal abuse tolerance, and air instability in high-voltage oxide cathodes under extreme temperatures. Blocker: Requires a wet chemistry and battery testing laboratory to synthesize, modify, and test physical cathode materials.
High-voltage oxide cathodes for high-energy-density lithium-ion batteries · UT Austin
Left open
Evaluate EIS-based battery health prognostics on a single cell subjected to varying drive cycles across its lifetime. Blocker: Requires a physical battery testing lab and potentiostat to run cycling and EIS measurements across varied drive cycles
Lithium-Ion Battery State of Health Estimation and Remaining Useful Life Prediction: Practical Techniques for Varied Operating Conditions · Scholarship at UWindsor Institutional Repository
Left open
Quantify degradation mechanisms and lifespan of novel high-nickel battery chemistries under real-life operating conditions. Blocker: Requires battery testing lab facilities, physical cells, and extensive long-term cycling experiments
Life-cycle modelling of lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles · Imperial
Left open
Test the electrothermal state estimation method across NMC, LFP, solid-state chemistries and pouch and prismatic cell formats. Blocker: Requires physical battery testing hardware and physical cells of various chemistries/formats for experimental validation.
Electrothermal State Estimation of Lithium-Ion Cells for Cold-Climate Battery Management · Carleton University Institutional Repository
Left open
Perform pressure vessel trace gas and GC testing on failed lithium-ion cells at 30%, 50%, and 70% SOC to detect toxic gases. Blocker: Requires a physical lab setup with a pressure vessel, GC analytical equipment, and battery failure test apparatus.
Towards an investigation framework for lithium-ion battery fire forensics · UT Austin
Left open
Integrate 3D porous ceramic frameworks with high-voltage cathodes and test long-term stability under fast charging and thermal cycling. Blocker: Requires a wet chemistry and battery fabrication lab to assemble cells and perform extreme condition testing
Process Engineering for High-Energy Density and High-Power Lithium Metal Batteries · Georgia Tech
Left open
Experimentally test CO2 electrolyzer degradation mechanisms, catalyst stability, and stack lifetime under dynamic cycling and prolonged open-circuit operation. Blocker: Requires a wet-lab experimental setup and physical CO2 electrolyzer hardware
Left open
Study chemo-mechanical damage, contact maintenance, and lithium trapping for aluminum foil anodes in solid-state electrolyte cells under high stack pressure. Blocker: Requires a physical wet-lab setup to build and test solid-state battery cells under high stack pressure.
Analyzing the Electro-Chemo-Mechanical Behavior of Aluminum Foil Anodes for Lithium-Ion Batteries · Georgia Tech
Left open
Simulate parallel battery packs under pulsed charging to study the impact of rebalancing currents and uneven heat generation on protocol optimization. Blocker: None
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