He Meinan, Zhang Xinjie, Jiang Kuiyang, Wang Joe, Wang Yan
Mechanical Engineering, Worcester Polytechnic Institute , 100 Institute Road, Worcester, Massachusetts 01609, United States.
ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2015 Jan 14;7(1):738-42. doi: 10.1021/am507145h. Epub 2014 Dec 16.
Battery safety is critical for many applications including portable electronics, hybrid and electric vehicles, and grid storage. For lithium ion batteries, the conventional polymer based separator is unstable at 120 °C and above. In this research, we have developed a pure aluminum oxide nanowire based separator; this separator does not contain any polymer additives or binders; additionally, it is a bendable ceramic. The physical and electrochemical properties of the separator are investigated. The separator has a pore size of about 100 nm, and it shows excellent electrochemical properties under both room and high temperatures. At room temperature, the ceramic separator shows a higher rate capability compared to the conventional Celgard 2500 separator and life cycle performance does not show any degradation. At 120 °C, the cell with the ceramic separator showed a much better cycle performance than the conventional Celgard 2500 separator. Therefore, we believe that this research is really an exciting scientific breakthrough for ceramic separators and lithium ion batteries and could be potentially used in the next generation lithium ion batteries requiring high safety and reliability.
电池安全对于包括便携式电子设备、混合动力和电动汽车以及电网储能在内的许多应用至关重要。对于锂离子电池而言，传统的聚合物基隔膜在120°C及以上温度时不稳定。在本研究中，我们开发了一种基于纯氧化铝纳米线的隔膜；这种隔膜不含任何聚合物添加剂或粘合剂；此外，它是一种可弯曲的陶瓷。对该隔膜的物理和电化学性能进行了研究。该隔膜的孔径约为100纳米，在室温和高温下均表现出优异的电化学性能。在室温下，与传统的Celgard 2500隔膜相比，这种陶瓷隔膜具有更高的倍率性能，且循环寿命性能没有任何下降。在120°C时，使用陶瓷隔膜的电池比传统的Celgard 2500隔膜表现出更好的循环性能。因此，我们认为这项研究对于陶瓷隔膜和锂离子电池来说确实是一项令人兴奋的科学突破，并且有可能用于下一代需要高安全性和可靠性的锂离子电池。
