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Lithium battery explosion prevention and solutions
Since the commercial application of lithium batteries, technology has continued to progress, and it has been widely used in electric vehicles, energy storage, electronic information and other fields, which has greatly promoted the development of human society, but at the same time, there are also different forms of lithium battery explosion and fire events, causing people to worry about the safety of lithium-ion batteries.
The power of lithium battery explosion
Theoretical knowledge: Try to calculate, a fully charged 2.6AH 18650 ternary lithium battery, the electricity is 2.6*3.65*3.6=34.164 kilo joules of energy.
The energy generated by the muzzle of the general pistol is about 2.2 kilo joules, 1 joule is equivalent to 1 Newton of force, and the work done when the object moves 1 meter in the direction of the force, so within the range of 50 meters of the pistol, it can easily kill the enemy.
Consider that an EV uses more than 7,000 3.4AH model 18650 lithium batteries. From the point of view of its storage of electrical energy, the electric energy of the ordinary lithium-ion battery with 150Wh/kg energy density is about 1/10 of the energy density generated by the explosion of TNT, the king of explosives.
Latest news: There have been several lithium battery explosions around the world in 2024. Among them, the lithium battery explosion accident and fire in the Ali Cloud room in Singapore lasted for more than 30 hours. In addition, a semi-finished product warehouse of a lithium battery factory in China suddenly exploded, and the factory caught fire in less than three minutes. Fortunately in both cases no one was injured in the accident.
Short escape time: From the experiment of professional firefighters that the lithium battery is damaged within 5 seconds of the fire from the surface of the battery; 30 seconds of burning produced toxic smoke can cover the entire room and corridor; The temperature will reach 200 ° C in 90 seconds; After 3 minutes, the fire entered the fierce burning stage, the temperature reached 1000 ° C, and the toxic hot smoke spread upward along the stairs at the speed of 3 to 5 seconds per meter, creating a chimney effect. Therefore, once the lithium battery explosion happened in a confined space, the escape time given will not exceed 3 minutes.
Causes of lithium battery explosion
So why are lithium batteries so prone to explosion and fire? There are several reasons for this.
The insufficient capacity of lithium battery
When the capacity of the negative part of the positive part in the lithium battery is insufficient, the lithium atoms generated, during charging, can not be inserted into the interlayer structure of the negative part. They will be disintegrated on the surface of the negative electrode to form crystals.
The long-term formation of crystallization in lithium batteries will lead to short circuit. Meanwhile the cell is sharply discharged, a lot of heat will be generated, and the separator will be burned. The high temperature will cause the electrolyte to decompose into gas, and when the pressure is too large, the cell will explode. So if the battery is non-compliant with an undercapacity of battery cell, it’s possible that the lithium battery explosion happen.
Excessive moisture content
When charging, water can react with lithium to generate lithium oxide, so that the capacity of the cell is lost. And it’s easy to overcharge the cell and generate gas. When the decomposition voltage of water is low, it is easy to decompose and generate gas. These series of gas will increase the internal pressure of the cell, when the can of the cell can not withstand, the cell will explode.
Internal and external short circuit
The battery short circuit will cause the explosion.
The internal cell short circuit causes large current discharge, generates a lot of heat, burns the separator, and causes a larger short circuit phenomenon, which will decompose the electrolyte into gas, and the internal pressure is too large, the cell will explode.
External short circuit may be caused by positive and negative electrode misconnection, due to the external short circuit, the battery discharge current is very large, will make the cell heat, high temperature will make the separator inside the cell shrink or completely bad, resulting in internal short circuit, and thus lithium battery explosion.
The lithium battery is overcharged
When the battery cell is overcharged, the excessive release of lithium in the positive electrode will change the structure of the positive electrode, and too much lithium released is easy to be inserted into the negative electrode, and it is easy to cause lithium on the surface of the negative electrode, and when the voltage reaches 4.5V or more, the electrolyte will decompose and produce a large amount of gas. Any of these could cause a lithium battery explosion.
Lithium battery explosion solutions
Taking the lithium battery used in electric bicycles as an example, the following methods can be used when its explosion is in a controlled range:
Dry powder fire extinguisher
After the electric bicycle lithium battery caught fire, the open fire was quickly extinguished under the continuous spraying of dry powder, but the open fire appeared again in the battery compartment about 1 minute later.
In the case of repeated spraying of dry powder, the lithium battery has a total of eight refires. Firefighters sprayed a total of nearly eight cans of dry powder in the fire extinguisher, which took 20 minutes to completely extinguish the battery fire. At this time, the lithium battery of the electric bicycle has been burned out, and the battery warehouse has become unrecognizable.
Water-based fire extinguisher
After the lithium battery of the electric bicycle enters the fierce burning stage, the firefighters spray the battery with a water-based fire extinguisher, and the effect does not seem to be significant at first, the battery is still deflagrating during the spraying process, but as the agent gradually covers the burning part, the lithium battery fire is soon extinguished.
The lithium battery was reignited four times, and a total of four tanks of water-based fire extinguishers were consumed before and after, and the entire rescue process lasted 18 minutes.
Multi-functional fire blanket
After the electric bicycle battery fire entered the fierce burning stage, two firefighters completely covered the electric bicycle with a multi-functional fire blanket, and stepped on the edge to cut off air, until 1 hour later, the fire was basically extinguished. At this time, the plastic shell of the electric bicycle has basically been burned, but after the isolation of the fire blanket, the fire can be effectively controlled to spread to the surrounding area.
Experts advice
Dry powder fire extinguishers can play a certain effect, but the effect of anti-reignition is poor, water-based fire extinguishers are better than dry powder fire extinguishers, not only can extinguish open flames, but also play the dual role of cooling and cooling and isolation of oxygen, but also easier to penetrate into the interior of combustible materials, and have a better anti-reignition effect.
The multifunctional fire blanket is a kind of emergency fire extinguishing equipment with functions such as heat insulation, smoke suppression and fire prevention, which can control the spread of the fire in the first time and control the fire in the local area, but the fire extinguishing time is relatively long and the cost is high.
From the current practice, continuous rescue with a large amount of water is the most effective, and the lowest cost. However, remember when the fire and explosion is out of control, leave the place as soon as possible.
Measures to prevent lithium battery explosion
In order to prevent the occurrence of lithium battery explosion accidents, we can start from the following aspects:
- Strictly control the charging process: set a reasonable lithium-ion battery charging voltage and current upper limit to avoid the occurrence of overcharging. Use a charger with overcharge protection to ensure that the battery does not exceed the safe range during charging.
- Strengthen battery safety management: Regularly carry out safety inspection and maintenance of lithium batteries, timely discover and deal with potential safety hazards, and ensure that the battery is in a safe state to avoid collision and extrusion.
- Enhance safety awareness: strengthen the understanding of lithium battery safety knowledge, improve the awareness and attention to lithium battery safety. Comply with safety operating procedures when using lithium battery products to avoid accidents caused by improper use and storage methods.
FAQs about the lithium battery
Will a lithium battery create a bigger explosion when it is charged?
The power of a lithium battery explosion when it is charged is almost the same as the power of a sudden explosion, but the risk of explosion is greater when it is charged. The explosion or combustion of lithium batteries is usually related to several factors, including overheating, overcharging, physical damage, or battery quality issues.
Therefore, the power of lithium battery charging may not be as large as that of the instant short circuit, it is easier to achieve the overheating conditions that cause the explosion when charging, so it is also necessary to pay attention to the charging time and battery status.
Will lithium batteries be safer in the future?
In 2024, a team of Academician Chen Jun of Nankai University in China published a paper called reducing the safety risk of high flammability of lithium batteries, and introducing flame retardant compounds such as phosphate esters and high fluorine compounds is considered to be a promising strategy. In this paper, a new co-solvent DEFP of monofluorophosphate is introduced, and its characteristics are studied, which provides a new method for the development of high safety and long life lithium batteries. So lithium batteries will be safer in the future.
Conclusion
This article introduces the power of lithium battery explosion, tells the reason of lithium battery explosion, provides the solution of lithium battery explosion, in order to reduce the occurrence of safety accidents to provide measures to prevent lithium battery explosion. Use the right lithium battery, the correct use of lithium battery can effectively facilitate our life.
