A new flame-retardant substance can prevent rechargeable lithium-ion batteries from overheating and perhaps starting a fire, researchers say. With such an additive, the light-but-powerful batteries now used in small consumer electronics could be safely scaled up to power cars and other large, energy-hungry machines.
Jai Prakash and his colleagues at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago added small amounts of the organic substance hexamethoxycyclotriphosphazene to laboratory samples of the conductive liquid, or electrolyte, typically used in lithium-ion batteries.