Laptop battery explosion: Nature and how to prevent it

The editors of Gizdomo have an in-depth article to help you understand why and how to prevent battery explosions on laptops.

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Lighter, cheaper and more energy-efficient, lithium-ion batteries are becoming the most popular power source in phones, laptops, cars and commercial airplanes. However, this battery has a " minor" problem : They don't just power, explode and start fires.

The reason for the lithium-ion battery (also known as Li-ion) exploded was due to a process called "thermal runaway" . In essence, this exothermic process is a continuous energy-boosting loop, causing the battery's temperature to heat up, and then exploding. This process is actually very popular, and takes place in many physical and chemical phenomena: From mixing concrete to exploding stars (creating supernovae).

Li-ion batteries may encounter the above heat emission process due to many reasons. Just like shortening the power by connecting the positive and negative ends directly to each other, short-circuiting on a Li-ion battery can be generated by a crack on the cathode separating membrane and the positive pole of the battery. Li-ion, therefore can cause heat emission.Temperature greater than 60 degrees Celsius, overcharging the battery for long periods of time, or repairing or changing the battery against the principle may cause battery explosion.

No matter what the cause is, once the conditions are met, the cobalt oxide in the battery will cause an explosion. Joe Lamoreux, vice president of Research and Development at Valence Technology explains to Inforword: "When you make this material heat up and when it reaches a certain temperature, it will automatically increase the temperature that leads to explosion ". In some cases, electrolytes evaporate and batteries are cracked. The battery will continue to burn from inside to outside if exposed to high sparks or high temperatures.

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While the "uncontrollable" phenomenon rate is quite low, the amount of Li-ion batteries used is too large to create very serious incidents. In 2006, nearly all major laptop manufacturers such as Apple, HP, Toshiba, Lenovo and Dell were recalled after several battery fires. Apple has recalled 1.8 million iBook and PowerBook, after 9 excessive heat exits were announced.

Moreover, their battery size, installation method and number of cells all affect the level of heat generation . Small batteries in DSLR cameras use less cell so the ability of heat emission to be "spread" from broken cells to other cells is minimal. Huge batteries on the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, on the other hand, are like bombs intentionally installed. The batteries were placed in a sealed metal box that was not heat-dissipated, and when a single cell was hot enough to generate electrical sparks, it all quickly deteriorated.

However, you don't need to worry about the Li-ion "bomb" on your laptop. In fact, most Li-ion batteries operate safely and stably throughout its life cycle. Li-ion batteries are only 2 to 3 years old, so you should replace the batteries within 3 years to avoid decaying the battery cells too safely. In addition, you should only recharge the battery if the capacity drops to 50%. Finally, do not let the voltage drop too low to damage the battery.