Lithium-ion Phone Batteries Explosions and Charging Tips

There have been incidents of phones exploding, but they are infrequent. The chances of your smartphone catching fire are slim, but it has occurred. There's little you can do if poor manufacturing is to blame; nevertheless, these hints may assist in preventing your phone from going up in flames. 

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A Samsung Galaxy A21 exploded on an Alaska Airlines flight. And a Brooklyn man was burned after his iPhone caught fire as he slept. A woman wearing an Apple Watch noticed her wrist heating up and caught the watch on fire.

The chance of your smartphone exploding is minor, but it does happen, as evidenced by Samsung's Galaxy Note 7 blunder a few years ago. But why does it occur, and, if anything, what can you do to prevent it?

Table of Contents 

Lithium-ion phone battery explosion

Lithium-ion battery charging tips

Disadvantages of lithium-ion battery

Conclusion

Lithium-ion Phone Battery Explosions

Lithium-ion batteries, portable power devices like laptops, cell phones, tablets, and virtually every other modern technology you own, and electric vehicles and airplanes are credited with the mobile device revolution. I wouldn't be able to write this article if it weren't for lithium-ion batteries; instead, I'd need to be plugged into a wall outlet.

Lithium-ion batteries are also notorious for being finicky. They don't like extreme heat or cold, they don't like being charged too frequently or left uncharged for too long, and they definitely don't like being punctured. Lithium-ion batteries have become ubiquitous despite these challenges because they offer the highest energy density, allowing for extended run times of portable devices.

What makes some lithium-ion batteries so helpful also causes them to catch fire or explode. Lithium has a tremendous storage capacity. It keeps your phone powered all day when released as a trickle. When the battery is discharged all at once, it can explode. Most lithium-ion battery incidents are caused by short circuits. This happens when the separator that keeps the positive and negative sides of the battery apart is damaged. The damaged partition allows electrons to flow from the negative to the positive side of the battery, which produces heat. The heat causes the electrolyte to overheat and catch fire. If the fire isn't put out quickly, it can cause an explosion.

Poor Design or Manufacturing Defects: The battery is poorly designed, like the Samsung Galaxy Note 7. There wasn't enough room for the electrodes and separator in that case. According to some models, when the battery expanded a little while it charged, the electrodes bent and created a short circuit. Even a well-designed battery can fail if there are manufacturing defects, as with the Samsung Galaxy Note 7. Poor quality controlled batteries made with sharp edges and punctures where there shouldn't be any, thus setting up a battery failure in advance.

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External Factors: Extreme heat is almost sure to cause a failure. Batteries have been known to erupt when exposed to excessive heat—or caught in a fire. Other external factors can also contribute to the deterioration of a lithium-ion battery. If you drop your phone too hard (or too many times), the separator between the electrodes and the electrolyte can crack, allowing the electrodes to touch and cause a short circuit.

Thermal runaway and Multiple Cells: One battery cell's failure sets off a chain reaction that fails the entire battery. When one cell overheats, it creates a " thermal runaway chain reaction." The Tesla Model S has hundreds of cells, which might cause significant issues with thermal runaway.

 Lithium-ion Battery Charging Tips

When charging or storing lithium-ion batteries, avoid extreme temperatures in both directions. Elevated temperatures can cause almost every battery component to deteriorate rapidly, posing significant safety concerns, including fire or explosion. If a laptop or cellphone becomes unusually hot while being charged, remove the connection. When setting at low temperatures, be cautious.

In most cases, the warnings about high temperatures in electric car owner manuals come from all manufacturers. Some recommend parking in the shade and keeping the car plugged in during hot weather, allowing the battery cooling system to run as required. It's also advised to plug in your automobile in cold climates so that the battery heating system can operate on grid power.

Use the battery's removal option as often as feasible. Avoid letting it sit at 100% or 0% charge for lengthy periods. Batteries are stressed by extraordinarily high and low "states of charge." Consider utilizing a charging method that restores the battery to 80% rather than 100%. If this isn't an option, remove the battery and allow it to sit in an 80% state before recharging.

Fast charging is a convenient feature that allows you to quickly recharge your electronic devices. However, it comes at the cost of degrading your lithium-ion batteries more quickly. When discharging a battery too fast, the same physical and chemical changes occur when charging at high rates. This includes increased degradation of the electrolyte and cathode through ion migration.

Disadvantages of Lithium-ion Batteries

Lithium-ion cells and batteries have a limited lifespan. They require protection from being overcharged and discharged too much, unlike other rechargeable technologies. They also need to be kept within safe operating limits. As a result, one lithium-ion battery disadvantage is that it must be protected by circuitry to ensure that they remain inside acceptable safety margins.

However, with present integrated circuit technology, this is relatively simple to include into the battery or equipment if the battery isn't replaceable. Lithium-ion batteries may now be used without any prior knowledge, thanks to the inclusion of the battery management circuitry. They can be left charging and will be automatically disconnected when the battery is fully charged.

The battery management system that comes with lithium-ion batteries monitors a variety of factors. The protection circuit restricts each cell's maximum voltage during charge to prevent overvoltage from damaging the cells. They are usually charged in series because there is only one connection for a battery. Therefore different cells can require varying amounts of charge.

The circuit also protects against excessive discharge. This might happen if one cell can store less charge than the others on the battery, and its charge runs out before the others do.

Another feature of the battery management system is that the cell temperature is kept at a constant level. Most packs' maximum charge and discharge currents are limited to 1°C and 2°C, although some get somewhat warm when charging rapidly.

The disadvantage of lithium-ion batteries in consumer electronics is their deterioration with age. Not only is this period or calendar dependent, but it is also different for each battery.

Conclusion

While many of the problems with lithium-ion batteries exploding have been remedied, it is still important to stay vigilant and use best practices with your equipment. Lithium-ion batteries have so many great uses that, if used correctly, far outweigh the disadvantages.