Innovative lithium battery design can avoid battery failure in car accidents

Lithium Grid News: According to foreign media reports, researchers at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in the United States have proposed a new design concept for lithium-ion batteries. There are cracks in the motor, which can be used in car accidents. Avoid the risk of battery failure.

The design concept may allow battery manufacturers to scale down the housing materials. Such materials usually prevent mechanical damage to electric vehicles and increase the overall energy density and cost.

The basis of the design concept is the introduction of the concept of electrode fragmentation. After the vehicle encounters an impact, the new design separates the damaged position of the electrode from other positions to avoid battery short circuit . According to Nancy Dudney, an energy storage researcher in the Department of Materials Science and Technology at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the author of the paper, in essence, if a collision occurs, the new design will break most of the large car batteries into many small batteries.

The team conducted a stress test on the sample, using a large metal ball to press a standard lithium-ion battery. After pressing the battery, it looks like a tomato, but its capacity can still reach 93% of the initial value. If it is replaced with a standard battery, the same damage will cause the battery to fully discharge and malfunction.

For this redesigned battery, the production of cracks in the electrode will only increase a small amount of manufacturing cost, and it does not require substantial changes to the battery. The team believes that the application of this technology will expand in the future . However, more testing needs to be done at this time.

The research was supported by the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy program of the Ministry of Energy. (This picture is taken from greencarcongress.com)