'Unbreakable Battery': Flexible, Cuttable Lithium-Ion Battery Won't Catch Fire

Current lithium-ion batteries are susceptible to fire and explosive incidents because they are built with flammable and combustible materials. Johns Hopkins University  researchers have designed a flexible, fireproof lithium-ion battery built to operate under extreme conditions, including cutting, submersion in water, and simulated ballistic impact. The key to the new battery design is the discovery of a new class of "water-in-salt" and "water-in-bisalt" electrolytes that, when incorporated in a polymer matrix, rid the battery of flammable and reactive solvents.

Transcript

00:00:03 Batteries are a technology we rely on every day. From cars to phones to even medical devices they've been a part of our daily life for decades. But they're not always the most reliable. A team at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics lab decided to do something about it introducing the flexible polymer lithium ion. The unbreakable battery. The flexible lithium ion battery operates under extreme conditions including cutting, submersion, and ballistic impact. And it still works. Now it's taking on lithium ion batteries biggest safety hazard: combustion. In short, it won't. "Our team has taken a two-pronged approach to solve this problem. First we're replacing the liquid with a polymer electrolyte, and second we're replacing the hazardous organic solvents

00:00:57 with non flammable equivalents." APL's lithium-ion battery is made of a single material as thin and flexible as a contact lens with its own built-in fire extinguisher. All without compromising the performance of the battery compared to equivalent liquid electrolyte devices. "Our latest work shows that we can make water based polymer lithium ion batteries that are not only safe and practical, but also damage tolerant and we've only begun to scratch the surface of our polymer technology." The flexible lithium ion is the next generation of energy storage. Stronger, more resilient, and safer batteries.