Lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) show advantages of high energy density, excellent cycle performance, and have been widely used in 3C electronic products, electric vehicles and energy storage power stations in Europe. However, the fire risk of the high energy density LIBs is high, and the lifetime of the LIBs is seriously attenuated under abuse conditions. Therefore, the overarching aim of this ambitious yet achievable project (FireSafeBATT) is to develop next generation safe and long-lasting LIBs through designing core-shell flame retardant phase change material (PCM) based electrolyte. The new ideas in FireSafeBATT to achieve this goal include:

i) Developing core-shell flame retardant PCM which can increase the lifetime of LIBs and decrease fire hazard of LIBs;

ii) Clarifying the effect of composition and structure of core-shell flame-retardant PCM on electrolyte performances, electrochemical properties of LIBs and fire safety performances of LIBs; iii) Gaining in-depth understanding of underlying mechanism of core-shell flame retardant PCM in extending the lifespan and inhibiting fire of LIBs.

The core-shell flame-retardant PCM can capture PF5 and HF and enhance Li+ transference numbers; When the LIBs begin to heat up, the core layer, composed of PCM, can inhibit the temperature increase, thereby preventing the occurrence of ‘thermal runaway’ in advance; When a LIB fire occurs, the large amount of PF5 and HF will be formed and then react with shell layer of core-shell flame-retardant PCM, which will work as a ‘switch’ to open the shell layer during fire. Thus, the released flame-retardant PCM will slow the burning of the LIBs through gas-phase flame retardant mechanisms.

The successful implementation of FireSafeBATT will highly satisfy several requirements related to Area 3: Advanced enabling technologies of the VI PRICIT, also contribute to the priorities of the Batteries Europe and European BATTERY 2030+.