Comparative study on the thermal runaway of lithium-ion batteries for sport camera using calorimetry and instrumental analysis

The thermal runaway characteristics and the internal components of three lithium-ion batteries (GoPro, KingMa, and TELESIN) for sport cameras were comparatively investigated. Besides using calorimetry to examine the TR features of these LIBs, instrumental methodologies such as SEM, EDS, TGA and XRD were used to analyze the physical and chemical properties of LIBs’ constituents and post-mortem residues. The results showed that, as the SOC increases, the risk of thermal runaway of the battery increases, while the thermal stability decrease for these batteries. The cathode materials of the LIBs were characterized to be LiCoO2 and the composed separators made of polyethylene. For 50% SOC, the thermal runaway parameters were ranked as the following sequence: the exothermic onset temperature, Tonset, KingMa > Tonset, TELESIN > Tonset, GoPro; the crucial temperature, Tcr, GoPro > Tcr, TELESIN > Tcr, KingMa; the maximum temperature, Tmax, TELESIN > Tmax, GoPro > Tmax, KingMa; the maximum self-heat rate, (dT/dt)max, GoPro > (dT/dt)max, TELESIN > (dT/dt)max, KingMa. A “knee-like” curve on the plot self-heat rate versus temperature is first identified from the decomposition of SEI among these sport camera LIBs. All these three LIBs used in sport camera possess risk because of their fire hazard (Tmax > AIT of carbonate), rate hazard ((dT/dt)max > 1000 °C/min) and potential pressure hazard under possible abuses in extreme sports.