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Automotive Battery Technology pp 37–51Cite as

Thermal Runaway: Causes and Consequences on Cell Level

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Part of the book series: SpringerBriefs in Applied Sciences and Technology ((BRIEFSAUTOENG))

Abstract

Lithium-ion batteries play an ever-increasing role in our daily life. Therefore, it is important to understand the potential risks involved with these devices. In this work we demonstrate the thermal runaway characteristics of three types of commercially available lithium-ion batteries with the format 18650. The lithium-ion batteries were deliberately driven into thermal runaway by overheating under controlled conditions. Cell temperatures up to 850 \(^\circ \)C and a gas release of up to 0.27 mol were measured. The main gas components were quantified with gas-chromatography. The safety of lithium-ion batteries is determined by their composition, size, energy content, design and quality. This work investigated the influence of different cathode-material chemistry on the safety of commercial graphite-based 18650 cells. The active cathode materials of the three tested cell types were (a) LiFePO\(_4\), (b) Li(Ni\(_{0.45}\)Mn\(_{0.45}\)Co\(_{0.10}\))O\(_2\) and (c) a blend of LiCoO\(_2\) and Li(Ni\(_{0.50}\)Mn\(_{0.25}\)Co\(_{0.25}\))O\(_2\).

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to acknowledge the financial support of the “COMET K2—Competence Centres for Excellent Technologies Programme” of the Austrian Federal Ministry for Transport, Innovation and Technology (BMVIT), the Austrian Federal Ministry of Economy, Family and Youth (BMWFJ), the Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG), the Province of Styria and the Styrian Business Promotion Agency (SFG).

We would furthermore like to express our thanks to our supporting scientific project partners, namely Graz Centre for Electron Microscopy and the Graz University of Technology, Institute of Chemical Engineering and Environmental Technology.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Virtual Vehicle Research Center, Graz, Austria

    Andrey W. Golubkov & David Fuchs

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  1. Andrey W. Golubkov
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  2. David Fuchs
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Correspondence to Andrey W. Golubkov .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Virtual Vehicle Research Center, Graz, Austria

    Alexander Thaler

  2. Virtual Vehicle Research Center, Graz, Austria

    Daniel Watzenig

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Golubkov, A.W., Fuchs, D. (2014). Thermal Runaway: Causes and Consequences on Cell Level. In: Thaler, A., Watzenig, D. (eds) Automotive Battery Technology. SpringerBriefs in Applied Sciences and Technology(). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02523-0_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02523-0_3

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-02522-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-02523-0

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