South Korean researchers develop a fireproof battery for electric vehicles

The alarm raised among the South Korean public in recent years by isolated incidents in which electric vehicles caught fire spontaneously has led the country’s researchers to focus their efforts on improving the safety of the battery packs in this type of vehicle.

Although the probability that an electric vehicle catches fire is statistically about 62 times lower than that of the same happening to a vehicle with a combustion engine, according to data provided by insurance companies, when an electric vehicle does catch fire the alarm it generates is much greater, further amplified by the media coverage of this type of incident.

The scientists’ work will, however, make vehicle fires increasingly unlikely, which will almost certainly give the general public greater confidence. An important step in this direction has recently been taken by a team of researchers at the Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology, which claims to have developed a lithium-metal battery with a longer service life than traditional lithium-ion batteries, and which should even be capable of extinguishing any fire by itself thanks to the unusual electrolyte it incorporates.

Battery technology continues to evolve

This team of researchers has created a solid triple-layer polymer electrolyte that is capable of preventing fires and facilitating the rapid movement of the charge-carrying ions within the cells, which translates into faster energy transfer rates. But that is not all, since according to laboratory tests, this lithium-metal battery was able to retain almost 88 percent of its original capacity after a thousand charge and discharge cycles.

The application of this technology could be broad and valid not only for electric vehicle battery packs, but also for other types of electronic devices such as smartphones, energy storage systems or laptop computers.

On the other hand, LG Energy Solution, South Korea’s largest supplier of cells for electric vehicle batteries, claims to have also been able to develop new battery cells capable of suppressing thermal runaway, thereby improving their safety by preventing overheating.

Although all these new technologies aimed at fire prevention are still at early stages of research and development, it is only a matter of time before they reach series-production electric vehicles, which will give a strong boost to the safety of this type of vehicle.