Science Advances
The electrochemical masterminds at Stanford University have created a lithium-ion battery with built-in flame suppression. When the battery reaches a critical temperature (160 degrees Celsius in this case), an integrated flame retardant is released, extinguishing any flames within 0.4 seconds. Importantly, the addition of an integrated flame retardant doesn’t reduce the performance of the battery.
As you may have surmised from the recent exploding Galaxy Note 7 fracas, one of the few weaknesses of lithium-ion batteries is that they contain a highly flammable electrolyte. If a Li-ion battery undergoes thermal runaway—due to physical damage, or perhaps a fault in the charging/discharging circuit—the result is usually a very big fire, sometimes followed by an explosion.
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Source: Ars Technica – Li-ion battery with built-in flame retardant could stop battery fires