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

• Membrane Journal
• /
• v.30 no.4
• /
• pp.228-241
• /
• 2020

Separators, which produces physical layer between a cathode and anode, are getting enormous attention as the quality of the separator determines the performance of lithium ion batteries (LIBs). Porous membranes based on polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP) are generally utilized as the separator of LIBs because of their high electrochemical stability and suitable mechanical strength. However, low thermal resistance and wettability of PE and PP membranes limited the potential of LIBs. Operating at the temperature exceeding the melting point of membranes, the separators change their structures which lead to short circuit of LIBs. Low wettability of the separators corresponds to low ionic conductivity which increases the cell resistance. To overcome these weaknesses of PE and PP separators, different types of separator were prepared by co-electrospinning, applying coating layer, forming core shell around membrane, and papermaking method. The synthesized separator greatly enhanced the heat resistance and wettability of separator and mechanical properties like flexibility and tensile strength. In this review different type of polymer membrane used as separator in lithium ion battery are discussed.

• Polymer(Korea)
• /
• v.34 no.1
• /
• pp.74-78
• /
• 2010

In this paper, crosslinked polyethylene (PE) separators for lithium secondary batteries were prepared by an electron beam irradiation under various beam currents and dose rates. The crosslinking degree increased up to maximum 71% with an increasing absorption dose and with a decreasing beam current. The PE separators irradiated at lower beam currents showed better thermal shrinkage (51%) and mechanical properties than the original PE separator and PE separators irradiated at higher beam current. The ionic conductivity ($1.01{\times}10^{-3}\;S/cm$) and electrolyte uptake (275%) of the crosslinked PE separators were comparable to the original PE separator.

• Membrane Journal
• /
• v.14 no.4
• /
• pp.263-274
• /
• 2004

The polymeric membrane, a component of battery devices such as Li-ion battery (LIB) and Li-polymer battery (LPB), is a typical material in which the carrier mobility dominates the battery performance. In this paper, the state-of-the-art of membranes for secondary battery is described in terms of membrane properties. Several prerequisites, which are related to stability of battery devices, are discussed to design and prepare suitable polymeric membranes. In addition, physical requirements of membranes and their measurement methods are described to develop applicable polymeric membranes in membrane preparation processes.

• Membrane Journal
• /
• v.22 no.6
• /
• pp.395-403
• /
• 2012

R&D of Nanofiber membrane has been carried out in the various fields, gas, water treatment, energy, and etc, with the continuous growth of membrane technology. There are several preparation methods for nanofiber, i.e. drawing, template synthesis, phase separation, self-assembly, and electrospinning. However, an electrospinning has many advantages such as high productivity, low production cost, easy to select law material, high relative surface area, and easy to functionalize. Nanofiber has been used in the field of membrane technologies such as secondary battery and water treatment fields. For the secondary battery separator, the separators having a high power and high thermal stability can be developed with spread of nanofiber on the commercial PP or PE/PP separators. High functional membranes can be also developed by adding the functional additives like antibacterial materials in the nanofiber membrane. It can be expected the high value added with nanofiber membrane because of its diverse applications from the water treatment to the energy field and because of its various functional advantages.

• Polymer(Korea)
• /
• v.32 no.6
• /
• pp.598-602
• /
• 2008

In this study we prepared crosslinked separators with the improved thermal stability by irradiating a commercial polyethylene (PE) separator for lithium secondary battery with an electron beam, and the thermal and mechanical properties of the prepared separators were evaluated as a function of the absorption dose. The thermal shrinkage of electron beam irradiated separator was decreased with increasing absorption dose. As a result of the shutdown behavior using an AC impedance, it was observed that the irradiated separator had the better shutdown function than the unirradiated separator. The modulus of the irradiated separator was enhanced as the absorption dose was increased, while the tensile strength and the break elongation of the irradiated separator were decreased.

• Membrane Journal
• /
• v.24 no.3
• /
• pp.231-239
• /
• 2014

Polyetherimide (PEI) membranes for separators in Zn air batteries were prepared via phase inversion process from casting solution composed of PEI, n-methylpyrolidone (NMP), and polyvinylpurrolidone (PVP). Furthermore, Zn air batteries were fabricated with the separators. The effects of PEI content and PVP addition in the casting solution on the morphology, mechanical strength, ionic conductivity were investigated through SEM, stress-strain test and ac impedance test. The elelctrochemical performances of the batteries were evaluated through galvanostatic discharge analysis. The mechanical strength of the membrane increased with increasing PEI composition in the casting solution. Little effect of PVP addition into the solution on the mechanical strength of the membrane was investigated. The ionic conductivity value decreased with increasing PEI composition in the solution. With addition of PVP, ionic conductivity of membrane increased until 10 wt% to show the maximum value of 0.1 S/cm. In the higher range of PVP addition over 10%, the ionic conductivity decreased with increasing PVP addition. Ionic conductivity of separator strongly affected the capacity of Zn air battery, and the battery assembled with the separator which showed high ionic conductivity showed high capacity.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
• /
• v.10 no.2
• /
• pp.82-87
• /
• 2007

New porous separators based on non-polyolefin materials including the blend of poly (vinyl chloride) (PVC)/poly (vinylidene fluoride-co-hexafluoropropylene) (P(VdF-co-HFP)/poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA), and the porous separator based on poly (vinylidene fluoride) (PVdF) were prepared by phase inversion method. The porosity and morphology were controlled with phase inversion rate, which is governed by the relative content of non-solvent and solvent in coagulation bath. To enhance tensile strength, the solvent pre-evaporation and uni-axial stretching processes were applied. The ionic conductivity was increased with increasing stretching ratio, and tensile strength was increased with increasing solvent pre-evaporation time and stretching ratio. The 200% stretched PVdF separator showed 56 MPa of tensile strength, and the ionic conductivity of the stretched PVdF separator was $8.6{\times}10^{-4}\;S\;cm^{-1}\;at\;25^{\circ}C$.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
• /
• v.37 no.8
• /
• pp.775-780
• /
• 2013

In general, the battery module of an electric vehicle (EV) consists of lithium-ion cells. A lithium-ion battery is a secondary rechargeable battery, and it consists of numerous stacked plates that serve as electrodes and separators. Owing to these microstructural features, its numerical analysis is very expensive. Therefore, this study aims to present a simplified thermal analysis model using equivalent thermal properties, and we compare the experimental results with numerical results for 185.3Ah and 20Ah cells. Furthermore, we show the thermal behavior of cells without the finite element method (FEM) or finite volume method (FVM) by adopting the lumped capacitance method (LCM).

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
• /
• v.20 no.2
• /
• pp.27-33
• /
• 2017

Conventional lithium ion batteries suffer from notorious safety issues caused by inevitable lithium dendrite formation and proliferation during over/fast charging processes. The lithium dendrites or mechanical damage on the separator induce internal short circuit in LiB that generates extensive amount of heat within contacted electrode surfaces through the separator. During this heat generation, conventional polyolefin separators shrinks dramatically, and increasing short circuit pathway, that causes the battery to explode. To overcome this serious issue, ceramic coated separators are developed in commercial LiB to enhance thermal and mechanical stability. In this paper, various size(IL = 488.5 nm, I = 538.7 nm, S = 810.3 nm, D = 1533.3 nm) of $Al_2O_3$ particles are coated using styrene-butadiene rubber(SBR) / carboxymethyl cellulose(CMC) binder on PE separator to investigate its thermal stability and electrochemical effect on LiB coin cell with NCM cathode and Li metal anode.