Thermal management study of cylindrical battery using novel thermally conductive anisotropic flexible phase change material
Wanwan Li, Tong Yang, Liying Chen, Jiaxin Shi, Tao Zhang, Changnv Zeng, Ruili Liu, Songzhen Tang
Abstract
As high density electronic-energy units, cylindrical lithium-ion batteries face significant thermal runaway risks. To address this concern, we developed a novel phase change thermal management strategy through design of phase change materials (PCM) with superior thermal performance: graphene-derived carbon aerogel (CA) with optimized oriented porous networks were synthesized as three-dimensional thermal conduction skeleton to overcome the low thermal conductivity of pure PCM matrix. Meanwhile, olefin block copolymer (OBC) with excellent elasticity was regarded as the flexible supporting material to co-melt with PCM matrix, endowing the PCM with flexibility to match the application requirement of the cylindrical battery with great hardness. Then the anisotropic flexible PCM (FPCM) was prepared and obtained. The test results showed that the radial and axial thermal conductivities of FPCM reached 6.75 W/(m·K) and 2.92 W/(m·K), respectively. At a battery heat generation density of 2.9×10 5 W/m 3 , the effective thermal control duration of the FPCM is extended by 471 s compared to existing isotropic PCM. Additionally, comparative evaluations revealed that the FPCM configuration with 4 mm thickness and radial thermal conductivity of 6.04 W/(m·K) exhibited the most effective temperature controlling, successfully achieving the battery surface temperature drop by 13.1 °C during operation.