Characterization on the thermal runaway of commercial 18650 lithium-ion batteries used in electric vehicle

• Published in: Journal of thermal analysis and calorimetry 2017, Vol.127 (1), p.983-993
• Main Authors: Duh, Yih-Shing, Tsai, Meng-Ting, Kao, Chen-Shan
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adiabatic flow; Analytical Chemistry; Batteries; Calorimetry; Carbonates; Chemistry; Chemistry and Materials Science; Combustion; Electric vehicles; Electrolytes; Enthalpy; Flammability; Gasoline; Heat; Ignition temperature; Inorganic Chemistry; Lithium-ion batteries; Measurement Science and Instrumentation; Physical Chemistry; Polymer Sciences; Rechargeable batteries; Spontaneous combustion; Temperature; Thermal properties; Thermal runaway; Thermodynamic properties
• ISSN: 1388-6150; 1588-2926; 1572-8943
• DOI: 10.1007/s10973-016-5767-1

Panasonic 18650A and 18650B lithium-ion batteries at full-charged state are conducted to run through thermal runaway by confinement tests. Exothermic features such as onset temperature ( T onset ), crucial temperature ( T cr ), maximum self-heat rate (d T /d t ) max , maximum temperature ( T max ) and maximum pressure ( P max ) are measured and assessed. Most of the maximum temperatures within the batteries under thermal runaway exceed both 800 °C and auto-ignition temperature of organic carbonates to ignite the flammable vapors of the electrolytes in the air. Adiabatic temperature rise is measured to be (775 ± 116) °C which equates to the enthalpy changes of (30.9 ± 4.6) kJ without adopting the correction of thermal inertia. Maximum self-heat rates are determined to be in the range from 17,610 to 27,594 °C min −1 . Panasonic 18650A and 18650B lithium-ion batteries shall carry the calamitous characteristics under thermal runaway if they rise above the crucial temperature of (188.0 ± 4.4) °C. Averaged enthalpy change caused by thermal runaway of a Panasonic 18650 lithium-ion battery is comparable to the equivalence of heat released by 0.71 grams of gasoline under combustion.