Arkema, a specialty materials manufacturer intends to improve electric vehicle (EV) battery safety with the launch of the first-of-its-kind Foranext® Gaseous Thermal Barrier (GTB) line. The new GTB material is engineered to prevent battery thermal runaway propagation at the origin of battery fires.
Foranext® GTB is the game-changing material that can be added to immersion cooling fluid technology to fight thermal runaway propagation. GTB is activated when a battery cell reaches abnormally high temperatures and forms a gaseous barrier around the cell, isolating it from the rest of the battery. Gases produced during the thermal runaway process can ignite outside the vehicle, but the presence of GTB to the vented gases decreases ignition probability.
As per the press release, Arkema is the first company to suggest a gaseous alternative to a solid thermal barrier combining the excellent heat dissipation performance of immersion cooling and exceptional thermal insulation provided by Foranext® GTB only to achieve superior results.
