RegGuheert said:What are you referring to as "voltage fade" and what are you referring to as "electrolyte degradation"?
voltage fade is when the voltage goes down but the capacity in amps stays constant. Its not a behavior exhibited by conventional li ion (Co, NCA, NMC, Mn2O4). So an example of voltage fade would be a cell that maintains its capacity in amps, but lost Wh due to average voltage dropping from say 4.5 to 3.5 Its mostly only relevant to exotic Envia style cathodes.
Electrolyte degradation is what the Dahn lecture is focused on, and it is what Nissan LEAF owners have personal experience with, it causes severe amp capacity reduction, but the voltages are basically maintained.
3M owns the international patents for NMC, its no surprise that they fund work to expand the usefulness of NMC.
Getting economic 4.5V/5.0V class electrolytes is a very big deal. All else being equal, with the appropriate cathode, it can allow a simple 30% cost reduction per kWh. So GM's LG cells would drop from $145/kWh to $101/kWh (and increase capacity by 30%) if they could boost voltage sufficiently.
(Or another way to put it, LEAF IDS would increase from 60kWh to 85kWh, for the same weight/cost)