Lithium-ion batteries have seen an exponential penetration into the market starting with mobile devices, power tools, and many household powered goods; now they are propelling mobility from two wheelers, cars, buses, and for large grid storage. Lithium-ion batteries have many favorable characteristics that is enabling this market growth but there are significant concerns around safety. Batteries can go into thermal runaway and this phenomena though statistically very rare can be catastrophic. At SABIC, we are working on a concept to use thermoplastics to passively detect the early initiation of a battery cell thermal runaway and respond instantly to dissipate and douse this thermal runaway before it becomes catastrophic. In addition, the solution creates barriers between the cells to prevent cell-to-cell propagation. Furthermore, the lattice structure created by the thermoplastic solution enables excellent cooling of the cells and act as an energy dissipating structure under crash. Due to enormous flexibility of creating geometry for almost free in thermoplastics, this cost effective design is possible addressing an important technology needed for the current energy transition.
Staff Scientist at SABIC, Saudi Arabia