Research Progress on Thermal Management of Lithium-Ion Batteries

Abstract

Nowadays, new energy technologies are developing rapidly, energy storage systems are widely used, and lithium-ion batteries occupy a dominant position among them. Therefore, it is also very important to ensure their performance, safety and service life through thermal management technology. In this paper, the causes of thermal runaway of lithium batteries are reviewed firstly, and three commonly used thermal management technologies, namely, air cooling, liquid cooling and phase change material cooling, are compared according to relevant literature in recent years. Air cooling technology has been widely studied because of its simple structure and low cost, but its temperature control effect is poor. Liquid cooling technology takes away heat through the circulation of liquid medium, which has a good cooling effect, but the system is relatively complex. Phase change material (PCM) cooling technology uses the high latent heat of PCM to absorb and release heat, which can effectively reduce the peak temperature of a battery and improve the temperature uniformity, but the low thermal conductivity and liquid leakage are its main problems. To sum up, lithium-ion battery thermal management technology is moving towards a more efficient, safer and cost-effective direction. Coupled cooling systems, such as those combining liquid cooling and phase change material cooling, show great potential. Future research will continue to explore new materials and technologies to meet the growing demands of society and the market for lithium-ion battery performance and safety.

Keywords

Lithium-ion battery / thermal runaway / thermal management system / phase change material / air cooling / liquid cooling

Conflict of interest

The authors declare no competing interest.

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 52001045).

Data Availability

The data generated during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Author contributions

Hong-Da Li: Writing-original draft, Software, Methodology, Data analysis, Conceptualization; Qiu-Wan Shen: Writing-review & editing, Validation, Supervision. Xin-Yue Zhao: Validation; Zhao-Yang Zhang: Validation; Yuan Wei: Validation. Shi-An Li: Writing-review & editing, Validation, Supervision.

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