South Korea’s LG Chem Ltd has announced it has developed a newtemperature-responsive material designed to suppress thermal runaway in electric vehicle (EV) batteries.
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The company said the Safety Reinforced Layer (SRL), developed in collaboration with the Department of Battery Science at the Pohang University of Science and Technology, is a composite material which changes its electrical resistance based on temperature – allowing it to act as a “fuse” that blocks the flow of electricity in the early stages of overheating.
The company confirmed it had already conducted safety verifications on the material in collaboration with the group’s battery manufacturing unit LG Energy Solution, with details of the findings published in the September edition of Nature Communications. The company pointed out 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 is applied in the form of a layer 1 micrometer thick, or about one 100th of the thickness of a human hair, between the cathode layer and the current collector – an aluminum foil that acts as the electron pathway in the battery. When the battery’s temperature rises beyond the normal range, between 90°C and 130°C, the material reacts to the heat by altering its molecular structure and effectively suppressing the flow of current.
The company further clarified “this thermal runaway suppression material is highly responsive to temperature, with its electrical resistance increasing by 5,000 ohms 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.”
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By GlobalDataLee Jong-gu, who headed the research at LG Chem, said in a statement: “This is a tangible research achievement that can be applied to mass production in a short period of time. We will enhance safety technology to ensure customers can use electric vehicles with confidence and contribute to strengthening our competitiveness in the battery market.”
