We report on a unique safety mechanism introduced to the Li-ion battery design to mitigate the effects of a mechanical impact event by limiting the current moving through resulting internal shorts, thereby preventing thermal runaway. “Slitted” electrodes and current collectors would electrically isolate the impacted parts of the electrodes before puncturing the separator. Batteries with such “slitted” electrodes were shown to perform normally prior to the mechanical impact. A proof-of-concept experiment showed that the battery with modified electrodes survived significant mechanical deformation without any change in the open-circuit voltage of the battery. It is interesting to note that, after the impact event, the modified battery was still viable with a reversible capacity of about 93% of that before the indentation test, while the standard battery was no longer functional.

我们报告了一种引入锂离子电池设计的独特安全机制，该机制通过限制流经内部短路的电流来减轻机械冲击事件的影响，从而防止热失控。“穿刺”的电极和集电器会在刺穿隔板之前将电极的受电部分电隔离。带有这种“狭缝”电极的电池在机械冲击之前表现出正常的性能。概念验证实验表明，带有修饰电极的电池在未发生任何开路电压变化的情况下仍可承受明显的机械变形。有趣的是，在撞击事件发生后，经过改装的电池仍然可行，其可逆容量约为压痕测试之前的93％，