Page 5 - Shimadzu Journal vol.10 Issue1

INSIGHT from CUSTOMER

Interview with Dr. Sascha Nowak
Interview 1
“ Very reliable,

professional and friendly.”

We interviewed Dr. Sascha Nowak, the head of the division Analytics & Environment of the
MEET battery research center in Münster. Münster Electrochemical Energy Technology (MEET)
at the University of Münster is one of the foremost battery research center in Germany.

Dr. Sascha Nowak, thank you very much for
spending some time for this interview. At
first, could you outline the research and let
us know what discovery and achievement
have been made so far?

We focus on (electrolyte) aging, transition metal
migration and surface investigations, recycling
and 2nd life as well as toxicological aspects with
regard to working safety. With many newly developed
methods, we could discover and verify aging products
and mechanisms. Furthermore, all applied methods were
transferred to the recycling of lithium-ion batteries to species of migrated metals and the factors influencing this
ensure the identification of the recycling components and process. This helps to combine electrolyte degradation
quality control during the recycling processes. mechanisms with the aging processes of electrodes.
The methods used in electrolyte aging to identify and
Could you introduce the research that has quantify the aging/decomposition products are also ap-
been particularly successful among your plied to evaluate and determine the risk given by hazard-
many advanced researches? ous substances in cooperation with toxicologists. This also
includes an overall evaluation of the electrolyte to meet
The competence field electrolyte aging characterizes elec- safety criteria.
trolytes in their various states of operation. Aging effects are Another focus of toxicological examination is the investi-
observed in terms of qualitative and quantitative investiga- gation of degradation products that may be formed during
tion using different analytical methods. This also includes /origin from the extraction, processing and further storage
the synthesis of substances as standards that are not com- of recycled material. These are analyzed for their possible
mercially available. In addition, recycling methods like ex- toxicity. The results are then included in an evaluation of the
tracting the electrolytes from cells are analytically developed entire recycling process and of the individual steps in this
and validated. Supercritical gases with and without the ad- process with regard to their specific potential risk.
dition of solvents are being tested for the extraction of elec-
trolyte components from spend batteries. The extraction is
carried out either in an autoclave or in commercially avail-
able extraction units. To characterize the electrolyte, a wide
variety of methods that focus on identification and quantifi-
cation of the different degradation compounds are used.
Reaction schemes are concluded from these measurements
that provide a deeper understanding of the manifold pro-
cesses taking place inside a battery.
Furthermore, migration of metals into the electrolyte and
deposition on the electrodes is investigated. Here, the focus
is not only to determine total amounts, but also to examine

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