The Mechanism of Thermal Runaway in Alkaline Batteries

Abstract

? The Author(s) 2015. Published by ECS.It was shown on the basis of charge current, terminal voltage, and change in battery temperature that during thermal runaway, the observed changes cannot be explained by the self-acceleration of known reactions (due to overheating), battery charging and electrolyte decomposition. The observed changes can only be explained if we assume, that the thermal runaway is associated with a powerful electrochemical reaction going within the battery with a terminal voltage approximately 0.55 V. It is shown that the recombination reaction of atomic hydrogen accumulated in the electrodes is exothermic thermal runaway reaction in alkaline batteries. New mechanism of thermal runaway in Ni-Cd batteries, which explains all the experimental data known currently is proposed.