Abstract: Sacrificial carbon structures for inhibiting thermal runaway in an electrochemical cell, and electrodes and electrochemical cells including the same. Structures having increased carbon content may be incorporated into the electrodes such that the carbon is positioned to react with released oxygen, to mitigate thermal runaway. These structures may take the form of a sacrificial carbon layer, a plurality of sacrificial carbon layers, and/or a multilayer active material layer having a sacrificial carbon base layer.