As the EV industry in India is battling the crisis of battery packs going up in fire or even exploding, comes the good news that a highly heat-resistant plastic material has been developed to delay thermal runaway in lithium-ion batteries used in electric vehicles.
Unfortunately for India, the new material has been designed by LG Chem in South Korea.
According to the company, the flame-retardant plastic material can prevent the spread of a flame caused by thermal runaway for more than 400 seconds at the temperature of 1,000 C, about 45 times enhanced performance compared with other fire-retardant plastics.
LG Chem has completed building a system required for mass production, and will make this new material commercially available by 2023.
But what is thermal runaway?
Thermal runaway is the main cause of fire in electric vehicle batteries, and is a phenomenon where battery cell suffers stresses from various origins and heats up subsequently. Flames arise once battery’s internal temperature rises above a certain level due to short circuit such as overvoltage and overdischarge.
Lithium-ion battery has high reactivity to water, which makes it difficult to extinguish it with water in case of fire.
Giving details of its newly developed special flame retardant plastic, LG Chem said it is a high-functional engineering plastic material that consists of various material groups such as polyphenylene oxide (PPO), polyamide (PA), and polybutylene terephthalate (PBT).
"Compared to general flame-retardant plastics, the new material can block heat for a longer period when it is applied to electric vehicle’s battery pack cover thanks to its excellent heat resistance."
LG Chem’s new engineering plastic material can be applied to battery pack covers so that it can delay combustion period in case of fire and prevent flame from spreading. This will help secure the time needed to evacuate drivers and put out a fire.
LG Chem said work is under way for patent applications for the new material in South Korea, the United States and Europe.
Based on the pack cover supply, the company plans to expand its application of material on vehicles as well as in various industries.
A flame-resistant plastic for battery packs in EVs is the need of the hour in India. The country has seen too many EV fires in recent times, and three manufacturers have had to recall their vehicles.
