A team of engineers and materials scientists at LG Chem, Korea's largest chemical company, has developed a material that they claim could greatly reduce the risk of thermal runaway and resulting fires in batteries. In their paper published in the journal Nature Communications, the group describes how they developed the material and how well it has worked during testing.
I recently tried to repair my mom’s phone’s screen and was struggling to remove the battery that was glued to the phone, and I accidentally stabbed it and caused a fire. I took the brunt of inhaling toxic fumes before I could open the window. It was hard to breathe for weeks, on top of being sick.
I’m crossing my fingers that we see this technology applied to many electronics within our lifetime. Batteries are a pain sometimes.