One of the problems surrounding electric vehicles is the fire hazard that lithium-ion batteries pose if they get too hot and have some kind of defect. Now, though, researchers seem to have come up with a type of anti-fire aerogel that is made almost entirely of air and can keep the fire from spreading from one lithium-ion cell to another.
The new material is designed by Aspen Aerogels, which just received a $670.6 million loan to build a new factory in Georgia from the Department of Energy. The hope is that the material—which the company calls a “very ethereal material”— will help passengers get clear of the vehicle should the worst happen.
I should be clear here. The new anti-fire aerogel isn’t designed to stop the battery from catching on fire at all. That’s a whole different problem that engineers need to solve. What it does, instead, is stop the fire from spreading, thus causing the entire battery to explode. That’s because what usually happens in this situation is one cell catches fire, and then the temperature continues to rise until the fire spreads, igniting the other cells around it.
The new material is perhaps the best thermal insulation in the world right now, John Williams, VP of Technical Services at Aspen Aerogels, told NPR. The material is made up of 99 percent air, George Gould, Chief Technology Officer at Aspen Aerogels, explained. When the company demonstrated the effectiveness of the material to NPR, the reporters noted that it didn’t appear to show any evidence of anything burning, even after having a jet of fire spit out at it.
If this anti-fire aerogel truly is as amazing as Aspen Aerogels claims, then it could at least help address one of the many concerns surrounding EVs. While range anxiety is already being addressed with better EV batteries that can charge faster, they still rely on lithium-ion cells to power them. This new material could at least help make those batteries safer in the long run.
The company says its material is already being placed between the cells in EV batteries found inside certain vehicles made by Toyota, Honda, GM, and more.
