Critical perspective on smart thermallyself-protective lithium batteries br

Thermal safety is one of the most pressing issues facing lithium batteries development, particularly inlarge-scale battery packs with high power densities. However, traditional external strategies fail torespond immediately to the internal increased heat and pressure. Therefore, it is of great urgency todevelop internal control strategies to confer innate thermally self-protective intelligence onto lithiumbatteries. This paper reviews the research progress of internal intelligent thermal protection methods toimprove the thermal safety of lithium batteries. Firstly, through phase separation/transition ofelectrolytes and thermoregulating separators with phase-change materials orflame retardants, thermalrunway could be largely alleviated. However, continuous electrochemical reactions still go on andfurther heat-generation still exists, thus this kind of strategies can only delay but not eliminate theonset of thermal runaway. Hence, on the other hand, strategies by insulating ionic or current transportto switch off cell reactions have also been developed to avoid heat-generation and eradicate possiblethermal runaway. Finally, insights into the future development of smart safer lithium batteries to avoidthermal runaway in terms of consistency, reversibility and adjustability are discussed, offering avenuesin the rational design of smart thermally self-protective lithium batteries in the near future

Automated summary

This paper reviews the research progress of internal intelligent thermal protection methods to improve the thermal safety of lithium batteries. Strategies such as phase separation/transition of electrolytes and thermoregulating separators have been developed to alleviate thermal runway. However, methods to switch off cell reactions are also needed to avoid heat-generation and thermal runaway.