Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Exploding Lithium thionyl chloride battery cleanup?

Twospoons - 2-2-2023 at 14:47

A colleague has just had a small lithium thionyl chloride battery explode on his desk - not sure why, possibly getting reverse charged through a fault.

I've advised doing a dry cleanup first, before wet cleaning, use of gloves and good ventilation.

Is there anything else we should do, or be careful of?

The main worries are the thionyl chloride and the lithium tetrachloroaluminate, I believe.

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Herr Haber - 3-2-2023 at 14:15

Heat of explosion probably vaporised most of the minute amount of SOCl2 in the battery.
Nice mark on the desk :) I'd clean a wide area just as you said though. Mostly because it's a work area and you're quite likely to touch something then touch your face.