In-operando high-speed tomography of lithium-ion batteries during thermal runaway

By D. Finegan, M. Scheel, James B. Robinson, Bernhard Tjaden, I. Hunt, T. Mason, J. Millichamp, M. Di Michiel, Gregory J. Offer, G. Hinds and 2 more. Nature Communications, 2015

722 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Prevention and mitigation of thermal runaway presents one of the greatest challenges for the safe operation of lithium-ion batteries. Here, we demonstrate for the first time the application of high-speed synchrotron X-ray computed tomography and radiography, in conjunction with thermal imaging, to track the evolution of internal structural damage and thermal behaviour during initiation and propagation of thermal runaway in lithium-ion batteries. This diagnostic approach is applied to commercial lithium-ion batteries (LG 18650 NMC cells), yielding insights into key degradation modes including gas-induced delamination, electrode layer collapse and propagation of structural degradation. It is envisaged that the use of these techniques will lead to major improvements in the design of Li-ion batteries and their safety features. It is important to understand the mechanisms of thermally induced battery degradation and any safety hazards. Here, the authors use high-speed synchrotron radiation X-ray computed tomography to shed light on the structural and thermal dynamics associated with thermal runaway and failure of commercial Li-ion batteries.

Subfields: Automotive Engineering, Electrical and Electronic Engineering

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/627e9b030fbdaf7a45bb2783d3347347658d8f92

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Citations in the corpus

A continuum of physics-based lithium-ion battery models reviewed (2022, background): “In extreme cases, under thermal or mechanical abuse, such as short circuiting the cells with a penetrating nail or via a lithium-metal dendrite through the separator, thermal runaway can occur due to the exothermic decomposition of the electrolyte at temperatures exceeding around 120◦C [36, 37].”
A review on research status and key technologies of battery thermal management and its enhanced safety (2018, background): “Furthermore, gas development inside battery cells is a well‐known phenomenon indicating the failure of a battery.(103) As concluded, gas generated slowly with increasing temperature at the initial stages.”