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Date posted
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(Funded by the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Energy)
A lithium battery can catch fire because of the high temperatures and rapid charging and discharging, or cycling, in the battery. These conditions can cause the cathode inside the battery to decompose and release oxygen, which can cause spontaneous combustion in the battery. Researchers have discovered that when they wrapped small particles of the lithium cobalt oxide cathode of a lithium battery in graphene, the battery’s loss in capacity was of about 14% after rapid cycling, compared to a loss in capacity of about 45% in a conventional lithium metal battery.
