Scalable Solvent-Based Fabrication of Thermo-Responsive Polymer Nanocomposites for Battery Safety Regulation. Issue 8 (6th August 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Li, Mingqian; Xu, Panpan; Lee, Suk-woo; Jung, Bum-young; Chen, Zheng
• Is Part Of: Journal of the Electrochemical Society. Volume 168:Issue 8(2021)
• Publication Date: 2021-08-06
• Subjects: Electrochemistry -- Periodicals; 541.3705
• DOI: 10.1149/1945-7111/ac18e5
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0013-4651

Abstract

Abstract : Improving lithium-ion battery (LIB) safety remains a challenging task when compared with the tremendous progress made in their performance in recent years. Embedding thermo-responsive polymer switching materials (TRPS) into LIB cells has been proved to be a promising strategy to provide consistent thermal abuse protections at the coin-cell level. However, it is unrealistic to achieve large-scale applications without further demonstration in high-capacity pouch cells. Here, we employed tungsten carbide as a novel conductive filler, and successfully overcame the intrinsic processing difficulty of polyethylene matrix in a scalable solvent-based method to obtain ultra-thin, uniform, highly conductive TRPS. Moreover, by integrating TRPS directly into LIB electrodes, no extra fabrication facilities or processes are required for making the cells. As a result, multi-layer pouch cells with consistent electrochemical performance and thermal abuse protection function were fabricated using industry-relevant manufacturing techniques, which brings TRPS one step further to the real application scenarios.