New Technology May Deal With Hoverboard Battery Issue

Stanford researchers are developing new battery technology designed to prevent hoverboards from catching fire or exploding. The main issue with these devices is the flammable material inside the lithium ion batteries, which can overheat and catch fire whenever something happens.

The phenomenon is comparatively rare and it has happened in a number of smartphones in the past. The latest move in dealing with this issue with the hoverboard is the development of better batteries by a team of chemical engineers from Stanford. The team claims they have developed a lithium ion battery that is capable of shutting down automatically before it overheats. The battery will restart once it reaches the best temperature. Nanotechnology was used in the development of the new battery, which required the development of graphene-coated spiky nickel particles that is embedded into a plastic film.

Lead author of the group, Zheng Chen, said they installed polyethylene film into one of the electrodes of the battery to allow current to flow go it. Chen added that it was necessary for the spiky particles to physically touch each other to conduct electricity. However, the film stretches during thermal expansion, which causes the particles to move away from each other. This will make the film nonconductive, which stops the flow of electricity through the battery.

New Technology May Deal With Hoverboard Battery Issue - image credit: bg.wikipedia.org

The plastic film filled with a graphene and nickel layer essentially becomes a circuit breaker, which expands when it heats up and contracts when it cools down. When it expands, gaps are created between each particle, which stops the flow of electricity. On the other hand, when it contracts, the circuit is reconnected automatically.

The work of the researchers was published on the Nature Energy journal.

Zhenan Bao, co-author of the work, said they can set the temperature lower or higher depending on the number of particles or the kind of polymer used. For instance, they can set the battery to stop working at 50 degrees Celsius or 100 degrees Celsius. Bao provided a video to demonstrate the approach.

However, the technology has yet to be released into the market. For the moment, it may be for the best interest of hoverboard owners to have a fire extinguisher ready for any eventualities. Owners can also build their own track for the device while using it for fun. The hoverboard is considered to have the lowest risk of fire compared to other forms of transportation in the market since it uses super-cooled magnets to work.

Posted by George Daniels on Tuesday January 12 2016, 9:02 AM EST. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under Technology. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0