Thermal-responsive polymers for enhancing safety of electrochemical storage devices

• Main Authors: Yang, Hui, Leow, Wan Ru, Chen, Xiaodong
• Other Authors: School of Materials Science & Engineering
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2020
• Subjects: Engineering::Materials; Electrochemical Storage Devices; Thermal-responsive Polymers
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/138699
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Thermal runway constitutes the most pressing safety issue in lithium-ion batteries and supercapacitors of large-scale and high-power density due to risks of fire or explosion. However, traditional strategies for averting thermal runaway do not enable the charging-discharging rate to change according to temperature or the original performance to resume when the device is cooled to room temperature. To efficiently control thermal runaway, thermal-responsive polymers provide a feasible and reversible strategy due to their ability to sense and subsequently act according to a predetermined sequence when triggered by heat. Herein, recent research progress on the use of thermal-responsive polymers to enhance the thermal safety of electrochemical storage devices is reviewed. First, a brief discussion is provided on the methods of preventing thermal runaway in electrochemical storage devices. Subsequently, a short review is provided on the different types of thermal-responsive polymers that can efficiently avoid thermal runaway, such as phase change polymers, polymers with sol-gel transitions, and polymers with positive temperature coefficients. The results represent the important development of thermal-responsive polymers toward the prevention of thermal runaway in next-generation smart electrochemical storage devices.