Characterising thermal runaway within lithium-ion cells by inducing and monitoring internal short circuits

Donal Finegan, Eric Darcy, Matthew Keyser, Bernhard Tjaden, Thomas Heenan, Rhodri Jervis, Josh J. Bailey, Romeo Malik, Nghia Vo, Oxana Magdysyuk, Robert Atwood, Michael Drakopoulos, Marco DiMichiel, Alexander Rack, Gareth Hinds, Dan Brett, Paul Shearing*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

226 Citations (Scopus)
48 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Lithium-ion batteries are being used in increasingly demanding applications where safety and reliability are of utmost importance. Thermal runaway presents the greatest safety hazard, and needs to be fully understood in order to progress towards safer cell and battery designs. Here, we demonstrate the application of an internal short circuiting device for controlled, on-demand, initiation of thermal runaway. Through its use, the location and timing of thermal runaway initiation is pre-determined, allowing analysis of the nucleation and propagation of failure within 18[thin space (1/6-em)]650 cells through the use of high-speed X-ray imaging at 2000 frames per second. The cause of unfavourable occurrences such as sidewall rupture, cell bursting, and cell-to-cell propagation within modules is elucidated, and steps towards improved safety of 18[thin space (1/6-em)]650 cells and batteries are discussed.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1377-1388
Number of pages12
JournalEnergy & Environmental Science
Volume10
Issue number6
Early online date29 Mar 2017
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jun 2017
Externally publishedYes

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