Review on the Lithium-Ion Battery Thermal Management System Based on Composite Phase Change Materials: Progress and Outlook

With the widespread use of lithium-ion batteries, their thermal safety issues are becoming more and more prominent. In combination of the research progress and critical technologies of composite phase change materials, a specific review of the applications based on composite phase change materials in battery thermal management systems is mainly presented. This review introduces the modification and optimization of composite phase change materials and their application in the thermal management system of lithium-ion batteries and focuses on the cooling methods commonly used according to the different materials and systems, which include air cooling, liquid cooling, phase change material cooling, heat pipe cooling, thermoelectric cooling, and a variety of multiple coupling methods. In comparison of the coupled cooling to other individual methods, it can be found that not only the cooling efficiency of the battery can be improved but the uniformity of the surface temperature can also be enhanced, which increases the safety and service life. Finally, the research results and bottlenecks of the battery thermal management system based on composite phase change materials are summarized, and rationalization suggestions are proposed, which have a certain guiding significance for the future direction of the development.