An innovative approach for the passive cooling of batteries: An empirical investigation of copper deposition on polyurethane foam for the enhancement of phase change material

A proof-of-concept utilising Copper-Plated Polyurethane Foam (CPPF) and Phase Change Material (PCM) for passive thermal management of lithium-ion batteries is demonstrated in this study. The aim of this research is to assess the effectiveness of CPPF when utilised as a constituent substance in PCM/Foam composites. Six distinct configurations of PCM/Foam composites are presented in this work using 10-pore-per-inch foam. A total of four deposition foam samples were produced. Of these, three were created by gradually increasing the immersion time in an electroless copper plating solution. For the fourth sample, an electroless plating technique was utilised for 80 min, followed by an electroplating procedure to deposit an additional layer of copper. The evaluation entails examining each plated sample in comparison to a copper foam that is commercially available with a purity level of 99.99 %. The findings reveal that the electroless-plated specimens exhibit improved effectiveness after being subjected to a prolonged plating period of 80 min. The electroplated sample exhibited the greatest degree of effectiveness, as evidenced by a 64.4 % reduction in battery cell surface temperature(10.98 °C), which is almost identical to the 64.5 % decrease in temperature (11.03 °C) observed with commercial foam but coupled with 88.1 % decrease in mass. The results suggest that the CPPF-PCM composites offer effective passive cooling properties for batteries.