Compressible battery foams to prevent cascading thermal runaway in Li-ion pouch batteries

Lithium-ion battery packs require thermal management to achieve optimum life and safety. This is becoming crucial for battery packs composed of high-energy-density cells. Pouch cells themselves achieve highest packaging efficiency but require additional structural support and thermal management when...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of power sources 2022-09, Vol.541, p.231666, Article 231666
Main Authors: Yang, Chuanbo, Sunderlin, Nathaniel, Wang, Wei, Churchill, Chris, Keyser, Matthew
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Battery safety
ENERGY STORAGE
Flame-retardant foams
Li-ion pouch cells
Thermal management
Thermal runaway propagation
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Summary:Lithium-ion battery packs require thermal management to achieve optimum life and safety. This is becoming crucial for battery packs composed of high-energy-density cells. Pouch cells themselves achieve highest packaging efficiency but require additional structural support and thermal management when grouped into modules, especially under abusive conditions such as thermal runaway. Novel foam battery pads have demonstrated to cushion volume changes of pouch cells and are reengineered in this study to mitigate cell-to-cell thermal runaway propagation. The compressible pads are made of polyurethane foams incorporating flame-retardant additives or coatings, including intumescent and fire wall materials. Their performances were evaluated by conducting nail penetration tests on modules composed of pouch cells at 100% state of charge (SOC), with the foams placed in between the cells. Experimental results show cascading thermal runaway was considerably delayed by polyurethane foams incorporating flame-retardant additives or coatings. Complete prevention of cascading failure was achieved with dense polyurethane foams with multilayered coatings of both fire wall and intumescent materials. •A redesigned compressible battery foam prevents pouch cell-to-cell thermal runaway.•Flame-retardant polyurethane foams were directly evaluated with battery abuse tests.•Combined bulk additive and surface treatment methods delivers desired retardancy.•Modeling predicts external cooling has limited contribution on propagation control.
ISSN:0378-7753
1873-2755
DOI:10.1016/j.jpowsour.2022.231666