Lithium batteries present a more frequent fire hazard each day as the number of consumer and industrial goods powered by Lithium batteries increases. Lithium-Ion is safe but with millions of consumers using batteries, failures are bound to happen. A small Li-Ion fire can be handled like any other combustible fire. However, as water flows away from the target it therefore requires continuous discharge until the fire is extinguished and cooled. When a Lithium-Ion cell goes into thermal runaway (increases in temperature) there are multiple possible sources of heat, for example: 1. Combustion - burning of electrolyte, packaging etc 2. Ohmic - resistive heating caused by high current flow through short circuits 3. Thermodynamic-ifthe electrodes are no longer isolated then the system will revert to its lowest energy state for that temperature as long as the activation energy is met 4. Chemical - reaction of the electrode material with other components of the battery (electrolyte), thermal decomposition of the metal oxide electrode, especially cobalt oxide.
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