Thermally conductive foams

The recent uptake of hybrid and electric vehicles has led to the development of higher and higher capacity batteries. These batteries generate a lot of heat during use. Thermal management is a major challenge. Furthermore, batteries also undergo strucural changes during use, they get larger or smaller based on the amount of charge in the battery, while also getting incrementally larger over time. Our project makes use of advanced nanomaterials combined with novel materials processing technology to manufacture a lightweight, highly thermally conductive adhesive to fasten the battery in place in an automotive vehicle. The improvement in thermal properties prevents the battery from overheating, thus lenghtening the lifetime of the battery. The designed material will also be able to withstand the change in size of the battery cell over a lifetime of use.