An Experimental Study on Thermal Performance of Graphite-Based Phase-Change Materials for High-Power Batteries

High-power lithium-ion capacitors (LiC) are hybrid energy storage systems (EES) with the combined benefits of lithium-ion batteries (LiB) and supercapacitors, such as high specific energy, high specific power, and a long lifetime. Such advanced technology can be used in high-power applications when high charging and discharging are demanded. Nevertheless, their performance and lifetime highly depend on temperature. In this context, this paper presents an optimal passive thermal management system (TMS) employing phase-change materials (PCM) combined with graphite to maintain the LiC maximum temperature. To evaluate the thermal response of the PCM and the PCM/G, experimental tests have been performed. The results exhibit that when the cell is under natural convection, the maximum temperature exceeds 55 °C, which is very harmful for the cell’s lifetime. Using the pure paraffin PCM, the maximum temperature of the LiC was reduced from 55.3 °C to 40.2 °C, which shows a 27.3% temperature reduction compared to natural convection. Using the PCM/G composite, the maximum temperature was reduced from 55.3 °C (natural convection) to 38.5 °C, a 30.4% temperature reduction compared to natural convection. The main reason for this temperature reduction is the PCM’s high latent heat fusion, as well as the graphite thermal conductivity. Moreover, different PCM/G thicknesses were investigated for which the maximum temperature of the LiC reached 38.02 °C, 38.57 °C, 41.18 °C, 43.61 °C, and 46.98 °C for the thicknesses of 15 mm, 10 mm, 7 mm, 5 mm, and 2 mm, respectively. In this context, a thickness of 10 mm is the optimum thickness to reduce the cost, weight, volume, and temperature.