Enhanced Refrigerant-Based Thermal Management System for Lithium Batteries with Rapid Temperature Response

: An effective thermal management system is essential for ensuring the battery operating with optimal temperature. Poor heat transfer efficiency between the battery and the cold plate results in refrigerant-based thermal management systems (RTMS) being inadequate. Herein, an L-shaped ultra-thin vapor chamber (UTVC) strategy is proposed to enhance the performance of RTMS. The L-shaped UTVCs facilitate the construction of high thermal conductivity channels between the battery and the cold plate, enabling rapid and efficient heat transfer. Although this strategy results in a 1.9% reduction in battery energy density, the heat transfer efficiency of system is improved by more than 26.36% under test conditions. This improvement aids in better battery preheating and cooling under low ambient temperature conditions, subsequently affecting the thermal and electrical characteristics of battery. In this study, the presented strategy reduces the temperature response time by larger than 93.3% and decreases the preheating time required for the battery to achieve 2.28C charge by 50.4%. During 1C discharge, the average temperature rise and temperature difference are consistently kept below 5 °C and 2 °C, respectively. This work demonstrates the potential of the proposed approach to improve RTMS performance.