Abstract: Investigating the fire hazard of electrolyte would be conducive to the quantitative evaluation of battery safety. In this paper, the impact of ambient pressure and mass ratio of carbonate solvents ethylene carbonate (EC)/propylene carbonate (PC)/ethyl methyl carbonate (EMC) on the parameters associated with combustion characteristics such as flame centerline temperature, mass loss rate, heat release rate for two kinds of electrolyte was studied and analyzed. The experimental results showed that the stable combustion stage of electrolyte was the main part during the whole combustion processing. The flame centerline temperature increased with the decrease of the pressure. The gain of PC content would improve the low- temperature performance of the electrolyte, while which would also lead to an increase in fire risk.

Key words: lithium-ion batteries, electrolyte, propylene carbonate, combustion characteristic