Exploring the thermal stability of lithium-ion cells via accelerating rate calorimetry: A review

Given the importance of lithium-ion cell safety, a comprehensive review on the thermal stability of lithium-ion cells investigated by accelerating rate calorimetry (ARC), is provided in the present work. The operating mechanism of ARC is discussed first, including the usage and the reaction kinetics. Besides that, the thermal stability of the cathode/anode materials at elevated temperatures is revealed by examining the impacts of some significant factors, i.e., the lithium content, particle size, material density, lithium salt, solvent, additive, binder and initial heating temperature. A comparison of the common cathode materials indicates that the presence of Mn and polyanion could significantly enhance the thermal stability of cathode materials, while the doping of Al also helps to restrain the reactivity. Except for their high capacity, some alloy materials demonstrate more competitive safety than traditional carbon anode materials. Furthermore, the thermal behaviors of full cells under abusive conditions are reviewed here. Due to the sensitivity of ARC to the kinetic parameters, a reaction kinetic modeling can be built on the basis of ARC profiles, to predict the thermal behaviors of cell components and cells. Herein, a short-circuit modeling is exampled.