LG Chem develops material capable of suppressing thermal runaway in batteries | Hacker News Reader

LG Chem develops material capable of suppressing thermal runaway in batteries

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28 pointswesturner12 comments

Does this prevent lithium - water reaction? Is that fire, or?

When current gen EV batteries catch fire in fresh and saltwater flood waters, is that due to thermal runaway?

(Twisted SWCNT carbon nanotubes don't have these risks at all FWIU)

Generally speaking, thermal runaway is not the lithium reacting directly with water in the air, it's a self oxidizing fire-- The electrolyte fluid is combustable, metal oxides in the anode material release oxygen when heated and a short circuit provides the heat and ignition source.

Good for use cases like vehicles where weight matters.

Twisted SWCNT is still mostly a concept. Doesn't even have proof of concept in the lab. According to people involved in it, it may take a couple of decades to go to market. But I agree, it would be great to have " wind up" cars, for example.

Business idea: form dense shipping containers of addressed arrays of [twisted SWCNT, rhombohedral trilayer graphene, or double-gated graphene,]? They would need: anodes, industry standard commercial and residential solar connectors, water-safe EV charge connectors, and/or "Mega pack" connectors to jump charge semi-trucks from a container on a flatbed or a sprinter van.

Branded, stackable Intermodal shipping containers with charge controllers

It's probably already possible to thermoform and ground biocomposite shipping containers, with ocean recovery loops?

Bast fiber anodes for super capacitors are inexpensive, and there may be something to learn from their naturally branching shape. https://www.google.com/search?q=bast%20fiber%20supercapacito...

"Scientists grow carbon nanotube forest much longer than any other" (2020) https://www.nanowerk.com/nanotechnology-news2/newsid=56546.p...

"Growing ultra-long carbon nanotubes" https://youtube.com/watch?v=VyULskYuGvg

"Ultra-long carbon nanotube forest via in situ supplements of iron and aluminum vapor sources" (2020) https://dx.doi.org/doi:10.1016/j.carbon.2020.10.066 .. https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=1zqRM3UAAAAJ...

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41159447 :

"Giant nanomechanical energy storage capacity in twisted single-walled carbon nanotube ropes" (2024) https://www.nature.com/articles/s41565-024-01645-x :

> 583 Wh/kg

Yes, obvious once. Only light years away, I'm afraid. Try and get funding for that. GLWT

> In its announcement, LG Chem has reported that in both battery impact and penetration tests, the batteries equipped with the thermal runaway suppression material either did not catch fire at all or extinguished the flames shortly after they appeared, preventing a full-blown thermal runaway event.

> The material comes in the form of a thin layer, just 1 micrometer (1μm) thick – about one hundredth the thickness of human hair – positioned between the cathode layer and the current collector (an aluminum foil that acts as the electron pathway). When the battery’s temperature rises beyond the normal range, between 90°C and 130°C, the material reacts to the heat, altering its molecular structure and effectively suppressing the flow of current, LG Chem said.

> The material is decribed as highly responsive to temperature, with its electrical resistance increasing by 5,000 ohms (Ω) for every 1°C rise in temperature. The material’s maximum resistance is over 1,000 times higher than at normal temperatures, and it also features reversibility, meaning the resistance decreases and returns to its original state, allowing the current to flow normally again once the temperature drops.

To the best of my searching, a typical lithium ion battery has roughly 20-30 cathode-and-current-conductor layers. So naively this would add less than 50 microns to the battery thickness.

Also, the open-access article is here: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-52766-9

Would this cause energy losses (inefficiency)?

I dunno. I skimmed the intro of the journal article and they say they achieve

> high conductivity of SRL under standard battery operation

but I don’t know if the losses are truly negligible. I think we need someone who knows more about batteries.

This, and possibly more importantly: how well does it retain effectiveness under wear/adverse circumstances?

It seems really promising, but if we up the cost of battery production and hence make them more expensive, then it would be nice to know it will still work after extended use.

ScholarlyArticle: "Thermal runaway prevention through scalable fabrication of safety reinforced layer in practical Li-ion batteries" (2024) https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-52766-9

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