  It is well-known that the microstructure of electrodes in lithium-ion
batteries strongly affects their performance. Vice versa, the microstructure
can exhibit strong changes during the usage of the battery due to aging
effects. For a better understanding of these effects, mathematical analysis and
modeling has turned out to be of great help. In particular, stochastic 3D
microstructure models have proven to be a powerful and very flexible tool to
generate various kinds of particle-based structures. Recently, such models have
been proposed for the microstructure of anodes in lithium-ion energy and power
cells. In the present paper, we describe a stochastic modeling approach for the
3D microstructure of cathodes in a lithium-ion energy cell, which differs
significantly from the one observed in anodes. The model for the cathode data
enhances the ideas of the anode models, which have been developed so far. It is
calibrated using 3D tomographic image data from pristine as well as two aged
cathodes. A validation based on morphological image characteristics shows that
the model is able to realistically describe both, the microstructure of
pristine and aged cathodes. Thus, we conclude that the model is suitable to
generate virtual, but realistic microstructures of lithium-ion cathodes.
