ABSTRACT
“Our house is on fre.” These were the words remarked by a 16-year-old environmental activist, Greta Thunberg, that pinpoints the climate crisis our world is currently facing [1]. This irreversible climate change has been the result of various factors among which fueled vehicle emissions has contributed greatly. Setting aside the folly and ignorance on this matter, a great deal of effort has been put forward in both research and application to recuperate. The sustainable energy foundation will be strong and effcacious if the storage technologies of chemical, electrical, mechanical, 140electrochemical origin are robust. Out of these systems, the electrochemical storage of energy using secondary batteries are at the forefront. For nearly three decades, lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) have found a prominent place among the electrifcation of vehicles and powering of utility grids and consumer electronics, replacing other battery systems, such as nickel-cadmium and nickel metal hydride (NiMH), because of their non-toxic nature , higher energy, and low-cost [2]. In order to replace fos-sil-fuel-based vehicles with highly effcient and reliable electric vehicles (EV) and/ or hybrid electric vehicles (HEV), safety of the energy storage system is considered a basic requirement. The major drawback of LIBs in EVs is the thermal decomposition of the battery components due to overcharging and/or overheating. Even though many measures are adopted to avoid these, the improvisation of the battery system itself can yield better results, which can be made possible by using components that can withstand high temperature (HT) [3]. Being the only liquid component in conventional LIBs, it was easily established that the electrolyte is very unsafe when subjected to extreme conditions [4]. This is evident from various unfortunate incidents of recalls of mobile phones and laptops and explosions during transportation and in EVs [5–8]. The thermal runaway triggered by electrolytes at higher temperatures can easily lead to the downfall of LIB technology, which offers high power density, energy density, and high capacity when handled with skill (Figure 6.1) [9, 10] et al. et al.. This chapter discusses electrolytes’ existing deteriorating chemistry and their improvisational materialistic aspects in the LIB research.
