The design of Lithium-ion batteries has been altered by researchers in such a way that they now include slits along the electrodes. These researchers have said that the feature will be crucial towards the mitigation of battery failure during automobile accidents.

Nancy Dudney, a researchers, opined, “Our innovation may allow the large batteries used in most vehicles to fragment into many small batteries if damaged in a collision. With such an innovation, device manufacturers can reduce the weight and expense of heavy-duty containers that are normally needed to protect their batteries from mechanical abuse.”

Lithium-ion batteries are exceptionally safe and quite a significant number of the electric and hybrid cars use them. However, an impact might end up disrupting the functioning of the battery and as a result spark an electrical short. Dudney and her team have been looking into the various ways in which they can be able to bring down the risk of a battery failing during an incidence such as an accident. According them, the addition of slits as perforations along the electrodes is needed to ensure proper functioning of the batteries at all times.

The best part about the slits lies in that fact that they are designed in such a manner that they are able to break the electrodes into minute fragments whenever an impact occurs. As a result the battery’s energy is divided in simpler components and thus it gets rather difficult for the temperatures to escalate beyond a level that a battery can handle.

In the event that a short occurs, the fragments then end up limiting the current as well as the heart around the short. Dudney outlined that the Safety glass was their main source of inspiration. According to her, sometimes the best strategy towards protecting against dangerous failure is by allowing a given component to break or fail safely and gracefully under mechanical abuse. The team had taken time to carry out tests on their model against the standard lithium-ion battery and that was through pressing a ball into each. The modified battery was very much distorted but functioned at an overall arte of 93%.The standard one failed to function.