Thermal Investigations on Battery Safety
- The transportation and storage of lithium-ion batteries (LIB) — damaged or in an undefined state — is a major safety concern for regulatory institutions. Damaged LIBs pose the risk of a so-called thermal runaway (TR), a strongly exothermic reaction with the formation of gases, flames or even an explosion of the battery. The relevance of this issue is underlined by the number of fires that have occurred at recycling centers in the recent past. One solution to circumvent a TR is given by thermal passivation (i.e. deep-freezing) of batteries. Practically, this method is already used and temperatures below -60 °C are considered safe.
In this talk, the parameter battery safety is revisited under the premise of heat-transfer and activation energies. At first, mechanically initiated TRs are compared for different cell chemistries, cell sizes, and temperatures, revealing that the threshold of thermal passivation is vastly system specific. Combining these results with differential scanningThe transportation and storage of lithium-ion batteries (LIB) — damaged or in an undefined state — is a major safety concern for regulatory institutions. Damaged LIBs pose the risk of a so-called thermal runaway (TR), a strongly exothermic reaction with the formation of gases, flames or even an explosion of the battery. The relevance of this issue is underlined by the number of fires that have occurred at recycling centers in the recent past. One solution to circumvent a TR is given by thermal passivation (i.e. deep-freezing) of batteries. Practically, this method is already used and temperatures below -60 °C are considered safe.
In this talk, the parameter battery safety is revisited under the premise of heat-transfer and activation energies. At first, mechanically initiated TRs are compared for different cell chemistries, cell sizes, and temperatures, revealing that the threshold of thermal passivation is vastly system specific. Combining these results with differential scanning calorimetry underlines that the hazard potential of a battery is not necessarily eliminated by freezing the electrolyte. Instead, the potential for a TR needs to be regarded as a multivariant function of energy content, cell-voltage, chemical stability, and electrokinetic performance. Since the latter parameter is known to be vastly temperature-dependent, it is addressed in detail by a low-temperature electrokinetic study of different types of LIB. In this context, it is demonstrated that batteries are kinetically active even at temperatures well below the freezing point of the electrolyte and that their instantaneous power output is resembled sufficiently via Arrhenius´ law.
To get a detailed understanding of cell-specific heat release during and prior to a TR, data from accelerated rate calorimetry will be discussed for various cell types at different state of charge and state of health. This will eventually provide a conclusive picture how a cell-internal TR-propagation takes place and which parameters need to be deliberately tuned under the premise of battery safety.…


| Autor*innen: | Tim TichterORCiD |
|---|---|
| Koautor*innen: | Nikolaos LengasORCiD, Nils BöttcherORCiD |
| Dokumenttyp: | Vortrag |
| Veröffentlichungsform: | Präsentation |
| Sprache: | Englisch |
| Jahr der Erstveröffentlichung: | 2025 |
| Organisationseinheit der BAM: | 3 Gefahrgutumschließungen; Energiespeicher |
| 3 Gefahrgutumschließungen; Energiespeicher / 3.1 Sicherheit von Gefahrgutverpackungen und Batterien | |
| DDC-Klassifikation: | Technik, Medizin, angewandte Wissenschaften / Ingenieurwissenschaften / Angewandte Physik |
| Freie Schlagwörter: | Accelerated rate calorimetry; Critically defective batteries; Differential scanning calorimetry; High-speed nail penetration; Thermal passivation of batteries |
| Themenfelder/Aktivitätsfelder der BAM: | Energie |
| Energie / Elektrische Energiespeicher und -umwandlung | |
| Veranstaltung: | 26. Kalorimetrietge |
| Veranstaltungsort: | Leipzig, Germany |
| Beginndatum der Veranstaltung: | 11.06.2025 |
| Enddatum der Veranstaltung: | 13.06.2025 |
| Verfügbarkeit des Dokuments: | Datei im Netzwerk der BAM verfügbar ("Closed Access") |
| Datum der Freischaltung: | 09.12.2025 |
| Referierte Publikation: | Nein |
| Eingeladener Vortrag (wissenschaftliche Konferenzen): | Nein |

