Because lithium-ion batteries power modern life, they need to store a lot of energy. Now scientists are focusing on making them safer.
The Mahoneys’ hoverboard turned out to be a blast from the past. But not in a way the Stoneham, Mass., family had hoped.
The toy’s wheeled platform can carry a standing rider around the neighborhood. This one had sat unused for years. A few last spins before donating it to charity seemed like fun. So mom plugged it in to charge its lithium-ion battery.
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While charging, the battery overheated and exploded. The ensuing flames set the family’s house on fire. A teenage daughter was home at the time. As the house filled with smoke, she climbed out a second-story window and onto an overhang. From there, she jumped to the ground as police officers stood by. The 2019 episode caused hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of damage, according to news reports.
Chemist Judith Jeevarajan has heard a lot about problems with products powered by lithium-ion batteries. She studies battery chemistry and safety for Underwriters Laboratory in Houston, Texas. The company carries out safety research on products that we use daily.
In the United States alone, a government safety agency has received thousands of reported failures by lithium-ion batteries. The good news: Rates of catastrophic failures have fallen, Jeevarajan says. Today, perhaps 1 in 10 million lithium-ion batteries fail, she says. And reports of hoverboards catching flame have waned. Now Jeevarajan hears more about problems with the batteries in e-cigarettes.
This includes a 2018 vape-pen explosion that sent a teen to the hospital with a shattered jawbone and a hole in his chin. One study estimates that between 2015 and 2017, more than 2,000 battery explosions or burn injuries sent vapers to the hospital. There were even a couple of deaths.
The problem is that an overheated e-cig battery can get out of control fast. Users may be hurt badly, Jeevarajan says. “But then also … the carpet’s burning, the drapes are burning, the furniture is burning and so on.” Despite having just one lithium-ion cell in it, she notes, a failed e-cig battery “can cause so much damage.”
Fortunately, most lithium-ion batteries work as intended — and don’t catch fire. But when one does, the result can be catastrophic. So researchers are working to make these batteries safer while engineering them to be even more powerful.
