Listening to batteries helps scientists decode faint sounds • The Register

When lithium-ion batteries degrade, they emit acoustic signals that reveal what's going wrong inside. Now, MIT researchers say they've figured out how to interpret those sounds, and the subtle creaks and pops that come before major failures, to help predict problems before things go up in smoke.

Led by MIT chemical engineering and mathematics professor Martin Bazant, the team's recently published findings suggest that it doesn't take much more than listening to the groans of a Li-ion battery to determine precisely what's going on inside. The "acoustic emissions" of Li-ion batteries aren't uniform, the team said, but vary based on the specific problem with a damaged or dying cell.

"We were able to classify [acoustic emissions] as coming from gas bubbles that are generated by side reaction