Experimental Study on Suppression of Lithium-Ion Battery Fires Using Clean and Efficient Aqueous Fire Extinguishing Agents

This study investigates the suppression of lithium-ion battery (LIB) fires using composite aqueous extinguishing agents, with a 20 Ah lithium iron phosphate battery as the experimental subject. Based on the functional selection of coverage-isolation and cooling-smothering, three aqueous extinguishing agents, S-E-1, S-E-2, and S-E-3, were designed and developed using hydrocarbon surfactants. The results indicate that all three aqueous fire extinguishing agents can effectively suppress LIB fires. Through a comprehensive evaluation of extinguishing time, cooling rate during extinguishing agent release, and physical and chemical parameters of the extinguishing agents, the optimal formulation was determined to be 2% SDS (sodium dodecyl sulfate), 1% SDBS (sodium dodecyl benzene sulfonate), 3.5% CAB (cocamidopropyl betaine), 1% APG0810 (alkyl polyglycoside), 1% CDEA (coconut oil acid diethanolamine), 0.32% CH₄N₂O (urea), 1.5% NH₄H₂PO₄ (ammonium dihydrogen phosphate), 0.5% C₂H₆O₂ (glycol), 1.5% Na₃PO₄ (sodium phosphate), and deionised water, demonstrated the best performance. Reducing the extinguishing time to 14 seconds, a 41.7% reduction compared to pure water, and increasing the cooling rate to 0.816 °C·s^–1, which is 4.4 times that of pure water, with no reignition observed. This work contributes to the theoretical principles needed to engineer next-generation fire suppression materials for lithium-ion batteries that are both efficient and eco-friendly.