Study on the potential of multi-performance enhanced phase change materials in battery thermal management

Lots of research has proved the effectiveness of flexible composite phase change material (CPCM) in thermal management of electronic products. However, the key properties of materials, e.g., flexibility, thermal conductivity and resistance are mutually restricted, further limiting its application in practical thermal management engineering. Unfortunately, the above performance has not been comprehensively considered in the existing research. In this work, a novel shape-stabilized flexible CPCM with considerable comprehensive performance was proposed. Styrene-b-ethylene-co-butylene-b-styrene (SEBS) was used as a flexible matrix to expand the flexible temperature range, and ALN was used to improving the thermal conductivity (0.786 W.m(-1).K-1), strengthening the three-dimensional thermal conductivity skeleton of expanded graphite and improving the resistivity to 5.16 x 10(10) Omega.m. Meanwhile, the CPCMs showed excellent performance in cycle stability, the melting enthalpy only decreased by 1.29 % after 500 cycles. The result of thermal management exhibited that the maximum temperature (T-max) and maximum temperature difference (Delta T-max) of the battery at 6C discharge rate were 43.64 degrees C and 2.39 degrees C respectively with the help of CPCMs. More importantly, it was also obtained that the thermal conductivity played a major role in the battery temperature control in the long-term operation, the increase of the thermal conductivity reduced Delta T-max by 68.05 %. This work will further provide technical support for the practical engineering application of flexible CPCMs for electronic thermal management.