Overcharge-to-thermal-runaway behavior and safety assessment of commercial lithium-ion cells with different cathode materials:A comparison study

摘要

In this paper,overcharge behaviors and thermal runaway(TR)features of large format lithium-ion(Liion)cells with different cathode materials(LiFePO4(LFP),Li[Ni_(1/3)Co_(1/3)Mn_(1/3)]O_(2)(NCM111),Li[Ni_(0.6)Co_(0.2)Mn_(0.2)]O_(2)(NCM622)and Li[Ni_(0.8)Co_(0.1)Mn_(0.1)]O_(2)(NCM811))were investigated.The results showed that,under the same overcharge condition,the TR of LFP Li-ion cell occurred earlier compared with the NCM Li-ion cells,indicating its poor overcharge tolerance and high TR risk.However,when TR occurred,LFP Li-ion cell exhibited lower maximum temperature and mild TR response.All NCM Liion cells caught fire or exploded during TR,while the LFP Li-ion cell only released a large amount of smoke without fire.According to the overcharge behaviors and TR features,a safety assessment score system was proposed to evaluate the safety of the cells.In short,NCM Li-ion cells have better performance in energy density and overcharge tolerance(or low TR risk),while LFP Li-ion cell showed less severe response to overcharging(or less TR hazards).For NCM Li-ion cells,as the ratio of nickel in cathode material increases,the thermal stability of the cathode materials becomes poorer,and the TR hazards increase.Such a comparison study on large format Li-ion cells with different cathode materials can provide deeper insights into the overcharge behaviors and TR features,and provide guidance for engineers to reasonably choose battery materials in automotive applications.