The recent increase in battery-related fires has raised concerns about the challenges of identifying defects that can lead to these catastrophic failures that are rarely detected by the naked eye. According to foreign media reports, in order to prevent these dangerous failures that can cause batteries to overheat and catch fire, researchers at Drexel University have developed a standard testing process so that manufacturers can better understand the inner workings of batteries.
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Journal “Electrochimica Acta”
In a recent paper published in the journal Electrochimica Acta, the team introduced a method that uses ultrasound to monitor battery electrochemical and mechanical function – a method that can immediately detect any damage or defects that could lead to overheating or even “thermal runaway.”
“Although lithium-ion batteries have been studied for nearly half a century and commercialized for more than 30 years, we have only recently developed tools that can observe the inside of batteries at high resolution,” said Dr. Wes Chang, assistant professor and principal investigator of the Battery Dynamics Laboratory at Drexel University’s School of Engineering and project leader. “Ultrasonic technology, in particular, has only been applied to battery diagnostics in the last decade from other fields such as geophysics and biomedicine. Since it is in the battery andElectric vehicleThe industry is a new technology, so it is necessary to give battery engineers an idea of how it works and what it is used for. ”
The team recently worked to achieve this goal by demonstrating a low-cost, convenient benchtop ultrasound tool that would be easily implemented and used by battery engineers, including those working in automotive companies that produce electric vehicles.
“While the vast majority of lithium-ion batteries today are excellent, safe, and reliable, there are inevitable flaws when electric vehicles use thousands of cells and millions of electric vehicles are produced each year,” Chang said.
