Whenever you hear reports of gadgets exploding or catching on fire, you suddenly get paranoid and every time your phone or tablet heats up, you panic. It’s a device owner’s worst nightmare of course. One of the “culprits” for isolated incidents like these is the lithium-ion battery which while useful for longer gadget life, has the tendency to burst into flames. A group of scientists from Stanford University may have already found a solution to the conundrum by coming up with a version of the battery that has flame retardant materials.
Lithium-ion batteries are pretty useful especially for smaller and thinner devices. But it often has thermal runaway which is actually “an exponential growth in heat”. This is because when the anode and cathode touch each other, it produces heat, which sometimes leads to the battery catching on fire. We don’t want to risk that happening, but at the same time, we want batteries that will last longer.
What the scientists have discovered is that they need to place a flame retardant material, specifically triphenyl phosphate (TPP) with a shell of another polymer. So not only will the polymer stop the electrodes from overheating, it will also prevent the TPP from seeping into the electrolyte so it won’t affect the battery’s performance. The catch is that it has only been tested in a coin cell, so they need to experiment more on bigger batteries.
If the experiment proves successful, this will benefit brands like Apple, Tesla, and most infamously Samsung, who have all been affected by issues with batteries catching on fire.
VIA: Science Mag
