Thermal Management System with Intrinsically High Thermal Conductive and Antileakage Composite Phase-Change Materials for Battery Module

Phase-change materials with high latent heat can release and absorb large amounts of heat, which has potential application in various fields such as energy storage, electronic devices, and electrical vehicles (EVs). However, there is still a need to improve thermal conductivity and antileakage performances. Herein, a three-dimensional (3D) metal–organic hydrogel (HGL) has been prepared by chelating metal ions and organic acids, and the composite phase-change material (CPCM) containing paraffin, HGL and styrene-butadiene-styrene block copolymer (SBS) and expanded graphite (PSHE) is designed and prepared. The experimental results show that PSHE exhibits high thermal conductivity (1.64 W/m·K), good thermal stability (98.68%), and super enthalpy (185.4 J/g). It is contributed that the presence of zinc ions in HGL with 3D structure can not only reduce the leakage of PA at high temperature but also improve the thermal conductivity of CPCM. Especially, PSHE2 with HGL: SBS exhibits optimum thermal conductivity at 1:1 ratio, which improves nearly five times than that of PA. Additionally, even at 2 C discharge rate, the maximum temperature (Tmax) and maximum temperature difference (ΔTmax) of battery module with PSHE2 can be controlled below 45.6 and 3.5 °C, respectively. It reveals that PSHE2 can guarantee the long-term cycling stability and thermal stability. Thus, this research can elucidate intrinsically high thermal conductivity and thermal stability CPCM, which has great prospect for next-generation energy storage and EVs fields.