Syllabus
Four core lessons, three optional ones and a final exam, from what is inside a lithium-ion cell to how it is rated, how it is made and how it wears out. Take them in order, practice with each lesson’s questions, mark each one complete, and finish with the final exam.
About this course
Seven lessons that take you from what a battery does and what is inside a lithium-ion cell to how it is rated, how it is made, and how it wears out. Every lesson opens with learning objectives, has practice questions and can be marked complete, and a final exam checks the whole course.
How to use this chapter
Each part adds one layer of understanding. The two “B” modules deepen the preceding topic without breaking the main sequence.
What is inside a cell? Name the components and trace charge/discharge paths.
How is cell output rated? Connect capacity, current, C-rate, and ideal duration.
How is a cell made? Compare conventional lithium-ion and solid-state production routes.
Why does performance change? Link operating conditions to degradation signals.
Syllabus
For every lesson: read or explore, take the practice quiz, then mark it complete before moving on. Times are estimates.
Reading · Start here, optional
What a battery does, how cells become modules and packs, the six numbers on a cell datasheet, the lithium-ion chemistries, and how this course works.
For: anyone new to batteries. Skip it if “cell, module, pack” and “Ah versus Wh” are already familiar.
Checkpoint: Can you say why a 14 Ah e-bike pack stores far more energy than a 5,000 mAh phone?
Reading + interactive workbench · Foundation
Identify the electrodes, collectors, separator, and electrolyte, then distinguish the electron path from the lithium-ion path.
Focus: component function and direction conventions.
Checkpoint: Can you explain why electrons use the external circuit while lithium ions move inside the cell?
Reading + interactive tutorial · Deeper view
Move from the five-layer stack into porous electrodes, pore electrolyte, solvent molecules, ions, and transport paths.
Builds on: the components and paths from Lesson 1.
Checkpoint: Can you explain why electrolyte in electrode pores is not a sixth structural layer?
Reading + calculators · Quantitative foundation
Calculate current, C-rate, ideal constant-current duration and nominal energy while keeping exact definitions separate from real cutoff behavior.
Focus: units, proportional reasoning, and model limits.
Checkpoint: Can you calculate the current for a 5 Ah cell at 2C and state why the real runtime may differ?
Reading + production simulator · Process chain
Follow reference graphite/NMC routes through electrode manufacturing, assembly, formation, aging, grading, and final testing.
Focus: material flow, process windows, and quality dependencies.
Checkpoint: Can you identify one upstream process change that affects a downstream cell-quality signal?
Reading + route-comparison simulator · Deeper view
Compare how oxide, halide, sulfide, and polymer electrolyte choices change the line, atmosphere, interfaces, and process challenges.
Builds on: the production logic from Lesson 3.
Checkpoint: Can you explain why choosing a solid electrolyte changes the required machines rather than merely replacing one material?
Reading + interactive labs · Chapter synthesis
Connect degradation mechanisms to capacity loss, impedance rise, self-discharge, temperature, and cycling conditions through explicitly illustrative models.
Focus: mechanism, observable signal, and operating condition.
Checkpoint: Can you distinguish capacity fade from impedance rise and name a condition that can accelerate each?
Practice
Every checkpoint in this chapter, as a loop, with Volta to work through them. Some questions are marked outright; the rest you check against what a complete answer covers. Nothing you type leaves your browser.
Chapter toolkit
Optional, and outside the checkpoints. Open it if you want to see how Lesson 3 is maintained, or if you are contributing a new process step.
Interactive browser editor · Authoring tool
Open the coating and calendering diagrams from Lesson 3, move or rename any machine and label, watch the live collision check, and export the changes as JSON. A third diagram is a standard template: the shared skeleton a new process step starts from.
Teaches: nothing on its own — it builds the course rather than explaining it.
Use it when: a label overlaps at your screen width, or you are adding a machine to the production chain.
Chapter checkpoint
The course is complete when you can connect structure, rating, production, and aging without treating them as isolated topics.
Trace electron and lithium-ion paths through a cell during charge and discharge.
Use capacity and C-rate to calculate current and ideal duration with correct units.
Compare a conventional lithium-ion route with one solid-state route and explain the changed process steps.
Connect an operating condition to a degradation mechanism and then to an observable performance signal.
After this course
Chapter 2 will build equivalent-circuit models from terminal-voltage conventions and open-circuit voltage through resistance, dynamic RC behavior, parameter identification, and validation.
View the full learning roadmap