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  4. Ultrathin ALD Aluminum Oxide Thin Films Suppress the Thermal Shrinkage of Battery Separator Membranes
 
research article

Ultrathin ALD Aluminum Oxide Thin Films Suppress the Thermal Shrinkage of Battery Separator Membranes

da Veiga, Leonardo Pires
•
Jeanguenat, Colin  
•
Lisco, Fabiana  
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November 30, 2022
Acs Omega

Thermal runaway is a major safety concern in the applications of Li-ion batteries, especially in the electric vehicle (EV) market. A key component to mitigate this risk is the separator membrane, a porous polymer film that prevents physical contact between the electrodes. Traditional polyolefin-based separators display significant thermal shrinkage (TS) above 100 degrees C, which increases the risk of battery failure; hence, suppressing the TS up to 180 degrees C is critical to enhancing the cell's safety. In this article, we deposited thin-film coatings (less than 10 nm) of aluminum oxide by atomic layer deposition (ALD) on three different types of separator membranes. The deposition conditions and the plasma pretreatment were optimized to decrease the number of ALD cycles necessary to suppress TS without hindering the battery performance for all of the studied separators. A dependency on the separator composition and porosity was found. After 100 ALD cycles, the thermal shrinkage of a 15 mu m thick polyethylene membrane with 50% porosity was measured to be below 1% at 180 degrees C, with ionic conductivity >1 mS/cm. Full battery cycling with NMC532 cathodes demonstrates no hindrance to the battery's rate capability or the capacity retention rate compared to that of bare membranes during the first 100 cycles. These results display the potential of separators functionalized by ALD to enhance battery safety and improve battery performance without increasing the separator thickness and hence preserving excellent volumetric energy.

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Type
research article
DOI
10.1021/acsomega.2c06318
Web of Science ID

WOS:000892127000001

Author(s)
da Veiga, Leonardo Pires
Jeanguenat, Colin  
Lisco, Fabiana  
Li, Heng-Yu
Nicolay, Sylvain
Ballif, Christophe  
Ingenito, Andrea
Leon, Juan Jose Diaz
Date Issued

2022-11-30

Publisher

AMER CHEMICAL SOC

Published in
Acs Omega
Subjects

Chemistry, Multidisciplinary

•

Chemistry

•

atomic layer deposition

•

lithium-ion battery

•

polyethylene separators

•

polypropylene membranes

•

polymer separators

•

performance

•

tio2

Editorial or Peer reviewed

REVIEWED

Written at

EPFL

EPFL units
PV-LAB  
Available on Infoscience
January 2, 2023
Use this identifier to reference this record
https://infoscience.epfl.ch/handle/20.500.14299/193548
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