Safety issues are the main obstacle that hinder the development of high-energy-density lithium batteries (LBs). Thermal runaway is the key scientific problem in the safety research of LBs. Recently, an ever-growing body of electrolytes are designed to improve the safety of LBs. Consequently, this review focuses on the thermal runaway behavior of LBs, including its inducement, process and the influence of electrolyte on it. Then, customized design of electrolytes are respectively proposed and discussed in order to deal with the inducement, chain exothermic reactions, fire and explosion during the three stages of thermal runaway. It is hoped this review can draw attention to the customized design of electrolytes, and thus promoting the development of high-safety and high-energy-density LBs.

安全问题是阻碍高能量密度锂电池（LBs）发展的主要障碍。热失控是LBs安全研究的关键科学问题。最近，越来越多的电解质旨在提高 LB 的安全性。因此，本综述重点关注 LBs 的热失控行为，包括其诱因、过程以及电解质对其的影响。然后，针对热失控三个阶段的诱导、链式放热反应、起火和爆炸，分别提出并讨论了电解质的定制化设计。希望这篇综述能够引起人们对电解质定制设计的关注，从而促进高安全性和高能量密度的LBs的发展。