National Research Council of Canada

Johnson Matthey Public Limited Company

Universitéde Montreal

La Corporation De L'ecole Polytechnique De Montreal

Dean MacNeil

Michel Gauthier

Guoxian Liang

Patrice Chartrand

Joel Perron

Joseph Wontcheu

Giulio Torlone

Steven Recoskie

Oltion Kodra

An apparatus and method for initiating thermal runaway in a battery cell are provided. The apparatus and method may be used in safety research of battery cells and packs to initiate thermal runaway. The apparatus comprises a resistive heating element for positioning in thermal contact with the battery cell for transferring heat to a region of the battery cell. An energy source is electrically coupled to the resistive heating element. A switch selectively forms a circuit to send a current pulse through the resistive heating element to generate a power pulse at the resistive heating element to heat the region of the battery cell for initiating thermal runaway. Alternatively, the heating element is heated and held at a predetermined temperature until thermal runaway is initiated. The heat generation rate may be designed to be comparable to that of an internal short circuit within a cell, which is much faster than many existing slow heating methods used to initiate thermal runaway.

Apparatus and method for initiating thermal runaway in a battery

There is provided a process for preparing a crystalline electrode material, the process comprising: providing a liquid bath comprising the electrode material in a melted state; and introducing a precursor of the electrode material into the liquid bath, wherein the electrode material comprises lithium, a metal and phosphate. There is also provided a crystalline electrode material, comprising lithium substituted by less than 0.1 atomic of Na or K; Fe and/or Mn, substituted by less than 0.1 atomic ratio of: (a) Mg, Ca, Al and B, (b) Nb, Zr, Mo, V and Cr, (c) Fe(III), or (d) any combinations thereof; and PO, substituted by less than 20% atomic weight of an oxyanion selected from SO, SiO, BO, PO, and any combinations thereof, the material being in the form of particles having a non-carbon and non-olivine phase on at least a portion of the surface thereof.

Process for preparing crystalline electrode materials and materials obtained therefrom

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Dean MacNeil