Smart phone battery self explode

The lately keep occurring battery self explode from a well known smart phone maker, certainly keep every phone user aware of their phones battery condition. Many report from private regarding why the battery self explode no matter if the phone is being charge, not under charge, or when the phone is totally shut off, is spreading on the net. Keep in mind, this report is not from the official, it is all from the private, so this so called "report" can be refer, but cannot be used to judged why it is happening. So for further understanding on the Lithium Ion Battery, we must first know the structure of the battery.


                  This picture show the structure of a typical Lithium Ion Battery (Li-Ion). 

Li-ion battery is being used in our phone replacing the old Nickel Cadmium(Ni-Cd) and Nickel Metal Hydride(Ni-MH) battery.Since then, the technology of this Li-ion battery has been improved for bigger current(mAh) flow to suite longer phone usage demand.

Currently, the battery mostly used in our phone is either Lithium Polymer Battery(Li-Po), or a Lithium Ion battery(Li-ion). This 2 battery have its pros and cons if compare together, but their main structure is almost identical.


                         Picture show the structure of a Lithium Polymer(Li-Po) battery.

So, why is the battery self explode? Reading to the non official report, this is caused by the thinner separator being used in the production of the battery as to produce a thinner and bigger current flow battery. The thinning of the separator caused the electrolyte to make contact inside the battery which made the battery suffer from a high heat, and also the forming of gases that result in an self combustion or explosion. This is correct and can explain why is the battery can self explode when the phone is shut off.

There also report suggest that the phone that being used while charging caused the electron to move back and forth rapidly between the positive and negative electrolyte. The non regulated moving electron caused the battery suffer from premature deterioration of the thin separator hence cause the electrolyte to make contact thus the battery self explode. This also correct as the separator will wear off over time but the service time of the separator should be much longer compare to the electrolyte. The thinning in separator used cause the service time to become short. So this explain why the phone explode when being charge and is used at the same time, and it also apply to the explosion when the phone is plug off.

We can see the private report all make the blame to the thinner separator in the battery. But until official report come out, we cannot say the blame is wrong.