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Cool metric for lithium-ion batteries could spur progress

A new measure for the rate of heat removal from battery packs gives manufacturers a simple way to compare products.
  1. Gregory Offer

    1. Gregory Offer is a reader in mechanical engineering in the Electrochemical Science and Engineering Group at Imperial College London, UK, and is the principal investigator of the Faraday Institution Multi-Scale Modelling Project.

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  2. Yatish Patel

    1. Yatish Patel is a research fellow in mechanical engineering in the Electrochemical Science and Engineering Group at Imperial College London, UK.

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  3. Alastair Hales

    1. Alastair Hales is a postdoctoral researcher in mechanical engineering in the Electrochemical Science and Engineering Group at Imperial College London, UK.

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  4. Laura Bravo Diaz

    1. Laura Bravo Diaz is a postdoctoral researcher in mechanical engineering in the Electrochemical Science and Engineering Group at Imperial College London, UK.

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  5. Mohamed Marzook

    1. Mohamed Marzook is a PhD candidate in the Electrochemical Science and Engineering Group at Imperial College London, UK.

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Researchers test components for batteries in a glove box

Technicians process materials for battery cells at car maker BMW’s research centre near Munich, Germany. Credit: BMW Group

Lithium-ion batteries get hot, and it is hard to keep them cool. Industry has paid too little attention to this problem for the past decade. The focus has been elsewhere: on cutting costs and on boosting the amount of energy a single cell in a battery can store (energy density). This strategy has, for example, increased the longevity and capabilities of mobile phones. Future applications, such as electric vehicles and smart grids, need thousands of cells in a battery pack. These are prone to overheating.

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Nature 582, 485-487 (2020)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-020-01813-8

References

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