Sigma Xi Public Talk
Addressing Lithium-ion Battery Resilience
Presented by Heather Barkholtz, Sandia National Laboratory
Lithium-ion batteries have experienced tremendous popularity, especially in portable consumer electronics. Increasingly, lithium-ion batteries (LiB) are being deployed in larger applications such as electric vehicles and grid-level energy storage. As energy storage systems grow in scale, safety and reliability becomes more critical in determining their commercial success. In an effort to quantify and enhance LiB safety and reliability, a series of experiments were performed. When electrochemical performance of various commercial cells was surveyed and compared, it was discovered that unintentional abuse conditions can be elicited within the manufacturer suggested operating windows. Although none of these conditions instigated immediate failure, the cells were likely damaged. Next, we moved towards understanding the mechanism of cell decay and failure. We found that cell chemistry and manufacturing processes greatly impact the response to elevated temperatures. Finally, a critical temperature representing thermal runaway's point of no return was defined. Cooling was used in an attempt to prevent catastrophic thermal runaway including venting and fire. Ultimately, this work is heading toward development of failure mitigation techniques means to prevent LiB fires.
5:00 pm, Thursday, September 7, 2017
Auditorium UNM Conference Center
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