Thermal management of lithium-ion battery cells using 3D printed phase change composites

This paper investigates the thermal management performance of a newly developed phase change composite for Lithium-ion battery packaging applications. Phase change materials have been investigated for passive thermal management of lithium-ion batteries on maintaining a uniform temperature, reducing the operational risk possibility, and elongating the life cycle. Despite these advances, the manufacturing of such material for battery thermal management is still not simple. Challenges including material waste, limited design freedom, and long production time remain and significantly limit the broader application of phase change materials in thermal management. To address those challenges, the phase change composite in this paper was produced using a 3D printing technique called selective self-binding laser sintering. The effectiveness of the 3D printed composites on thermal management of lithium-ion battery cells is investigated and compared with other phase change composites manufactured by conventional techniques. The composite studied in this paper consists of expanded graphite and paraffin wax. Equivalent heat generations of a cylindrical 18,650 Lithium-ion cell are resembled using a thin polyimide heater, and performances of the composites in thermal management are characterized. Experimental results and finite element analysis show that the 3D printed phase change composite can achieve thermal management functions comparable with the composites manufactured by the conventional press and soak technique.