• Membrane Journal
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.337-350
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• 2016

Lithium-ion rechargeable batteries (LIBs) have garnered increasing attention with the rapid advancements in portable electronics, electric vehicles, and grid-scale energy storage systems which are expected to drastically change our future lives. This review describes a separator membrane, one of the key components in LIBs, in terms of porous structure and physicochemical properties, and its recent development trends are followed. The separator membrane is a kind of porous membrane that is positioned between a cathode and an anode. Its major functions involve electrical isolation between the electrodes while serving as an ionic transport channel that is filled with liquid electrolyte. The separator membranes are not directly involved in redox reactions of LIBs, however, their aforementioned roles significantly affect performance and safety of LIBs. A variety of research approaches have been recently conducted in separator membranes in order to further reinforce battery safeties and also widen chemical functionalities. This review starts with introduction to commercial polyolefin separators that are currently most widely used in LIBs. Based on this understanding, modified polyolefin separators, nonwoven separators, ceramic composite separators, and chemically active separators will be described, with special attention to their relationship with future research directions of advanced LIBs.

• Proceedings of the Membrane Society of Korea Conference
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• 2002.11a
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• pp.69-72
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• 2002

No Abstract, See Full Text

• Proceedings of the Membrane Society of Korea Conference
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• 2008.05a
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• pp.202-205
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• 2008

• Membrane Journal
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.265-270
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• 2018

In previous studies, a poly(ethylene oxide)(PEO)/Ag nanoparicles (AgNPs)(precursor $AgBF_4$)/p-benzoquinone (p-BQ) composite membrane was prepared for olefin/paraffin separation and the performance of this composite membrane was maintained at a selectivity of 10 and a permeability of 15 GPU. However, since the price of $AgBF_4$ precursor is high, this study used $AgNO_3$ as a precursor of Ag nanoparticles which is competitive in terms of price. As a result, it was observed that the separation performance was not obtained because the existing $NO_3{^-}$ could surround AgNPs. In this study, we fabricated PEO, poly(vinyl alcohol)(PVA), and polyether block amide-1657 (PEBAX-1657) polymer composite membrane using electron acceptor 7,7,8,8-tetracyanoquinodimethane (TCNQ) for separation performance even when $AgNO_3$ was used as a precursor of Ag nanoparticles. As a result, it was analyzed that the performance was not observed regardless of the influence of the polymer and the electron acceptor, indicating that the anion of the precursor plays a crucial role in the separation performance.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.398-405
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• 2015

Facilitated transport is considered to be a possible solution to simultaneously improve permeability and selectivity, which is challenging in normal polymeric membranes based on solution-diffusion transport only. We investigated the effect of adding mesoporous $TiO_2$ ($m-TiO_2$) upon the separation performance of facilitated olefin transport membranes comprising poly(vinyl pyrrolidone), Ag nanoparticles, and 7,7,8,8-tetracyanoquinodimethane as the polymer matrix, olefin carrier, and electron acceptor, respectively. In particular, $m-TiO_2$ was prepared by means of a facile, mass-producible method using poly(vinyl chloride)-g-poly(oxyethylene methacrylate) graft copolymer as the template. The crystal phase of $m-TiO_2$ consisted of an anatase/rutile mixture, of crystallite size approximately 16 nm as determined by X-ray diffraction. The introduction of $m-TiO_2$ increased the membrane diffusivity, thereby increasing the mixed-gas permeance from 1.6 to 16.0 GPU ($1GPU=10^{-6}cm^3$(STP)/($s{\times}cm^2{\times}cmHg$), and slightly decreased the propylene/propane selectivity from 45 to 37. However, both the mixed-gas permeance and selectivity of the membrane containing $m-TiO_2$ rapidly decreased over time, whereas the membrane without $m-TiO_2$ had more stable long-term performance. This difference might be attributed to specific chemical interactions between $TiO_2$ and Ag nanoparticles, causing Ag to lose activity as an olefin carrier.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.49-54
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• 2017

We develop a ceramic composite separator prepared by coating $ZrO_2$ nanoparticles with a poly(vinylidene fluoride-co-hexafluoropropylene) (PVdF-HFP) copolymer on a polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) mechanical support prepared by electrospinning technique to improve thermal properties. The gurley number of the ceramic composite separator shows much lower value than that of a PE separator even though it possesses the polymeric coating layer with ceramic nanoparticles. In addition, the proposed sample shows higher electrolyte uptake than PE separator, leading to enhancing the ionic conductivity of the proposed sample and, by extension, the rate discharge properties of lithium ion batteries. Thermal stability of the ceramic composite separator is dramatically improved without any degradation in electrochemical performance compared to the performance of conventional PE separators.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.1-13
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• 2007

Pervaporation process using membrane is newly emerging energy saying and cost effect process instead of distillation process. Especially, in pertrochemical industry, pervaporation process is a strong candidate to substitute the conventional energy consuming processes because that petrochemical industry has much energy consuming separation processes, many azeotrope mixtures to separate and needs to compact space to install new process units. Aromatic/aliphatic separation including benzene/cyclohexane mixture, olefin/paraffin separation, xylene isomer separation, reactive monomer recovery and sulfur compound removal from gasoline have been inversitigated for the application of pervaporation membrane process by many researchers and are under commercializing.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.41-48
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• 2017

Herein, we have fabricated an ultrathin aluminum oxide ($Al_2O_3$) coated PP separator by using a RF sputter deposition process. Approximately 20 nm thickness coating layer on the bare PP separator was formed at the power of 55 W for 2 minutes without thermal damage. Whereas only permeability of the coated separator was degraded slightly, other properties such as thermal stability, uptake amount of liquid electrolyte, and ionic conductivity were improved comparing to the bare PP separator. As a result, an only 20-nm-thick $Al_2O_3$ coating layer could improve the rate capability compared with a bare PP separator under a high current density.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.205-215
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• 2017

Polymer membranes are cheap and easy in fabrication, and show a high permeability and selectivity, thus play pivotal roles in gas separation as well as water purification. However, polymer membranes typically exhibit the trade-off relation between permeability and selectivity; i.e. when the permeability is high, the selectivity is low and vice versa. Facilitated transport has been considered one of the solutions to address this issue. Over the last decades, facilitated transport concept had played an important role in preparing the membranes and providing ideal and various models for the transport. Understanding the nature of carrier, the mobility of matrix and the physico-chemical properties of polymer composites are crucial for facilitated transport. Depending on the mobility of carrier, facilitated transport membrane is classified into three; mobile carrier membrane, semi-mobile carrier membrane, fixed-site carrier membrane. Also, there are four types of reversible reaction between the carrier and the specific target; proton transfer reaction, nucleophilic addition reaction, p-complexation reaction and electrochemical reaction. The facilitated transport membranes have been applied in the separation of CO2, O2 and olefin (propylene or ethylene). In this review, major challenges surrounding facilitated transport membranes and the strategies to tackle these challenges are given in detail.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.239-245
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• 2003

The origin of large difference of selectivity of $C_3H_6$ over $C_3H_8$ between pure gas and mixed gas through silver polymer electrolyte membranes is investigated. Firstly, the effect of feed condition on the permeance of mixture gas ($C_3H_6/C_3H^8$) and the separation performance is examined. Upon decrease of the $C_3\;H_6$ concentration, the $C_3H_6$ permeance decreased whereas the permeance of $C_3H_8$ increased, resulting in the decrease of the selectivity of $C_3H_6/C_3H_8/.$ This result is ascribed to the $C_3H_6$-induced plasticization of membranes. Experimental results were validated by means of mathematical modeling, where pressure independent permeabilities were used.