TY - JOUR
T1 - Thermally stable, nano-porous and eco-friendly sodium alginate/attapulgite separator for lithium-ion batteries
AU - Song, Qingquan
AU - Li, Aijun
AU - Shi, Lei
AU - Qian, Cheng
AU - Feric, Tony Gordon
AU - Fu, Yanke
AU - Zhang, Hanrui
AU - Li, Zeyuan
AU - Wang, Peiyu
AU - Li, Zheng
AU - Zhai, Haowei
AU - Wang, Xue
AU - Dontigny, Martin
AU - Zaghib, Karim
AU - Park, Ah Hyung (Alissa)
AU - Myers, Kristin
AU - Chuan, Xiuyun
AU - Yang, Yuan
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 Elsevier B.V.
PY - 2019/11
Y1 - 2019/11
N2 - Traditional polyolefin separators are widely used in lithium-ion batteries. However, they are subject to thermal shrinkage which may lead to failure at elevated temperatures, ascribed intrinsically to their low melting point. And besides, recycling of spent lithium-ion batteries mainly focuses on precious metals, like cobalt, while other components such as separators are usually burnt or buried underground, causing severe hazards for the local environment, such as “white pollution”. Therefore, to solve the aforementioned problems, we incorporated attapulgite (ATP) nanofibers, a natural mineral, into sodium alginate (SA), a biodegradable polysaccharide extracted from brown algae, through a phase inversion process, whereby a porous separator was prepared. The resulting SA/ATP separator is endowed with high thermal and chemical stability, enhanced retardancy to fire, and excellent wettability with commercial liquid electrolyte (420% uptake). Attractive cycling stability (82% capacity retention after 700 cycles) and rate capability (115 mAh g−1 at 5 C) in LiFePO4/Li cells are achieved with such separator, additionally. Moreover, as both ingredients are nontoxic, this eco-friendly separator can degrade in soil without inducing any contamination. This work offers a viable choice to process a thermally stable, eco-friendly separator and open up new possibilities to improve the safety of batteries while alleviating the “white pollution”.
AB - Traditional polyolefin separators are widely used in lithium-ion batteries. However, they are subject to thermal shrinkage which may lead to failure at elevated temperatures, ascribed intrinsically to their low melting point. And besides, recycling of spent lithium-ion batteries mainly focuses on precious metals, like cobalt, while other components such as separators are usually burnt or buried underground, causing severe hazards for the local environment, such as “white pollution”. Therefore, to solve the aforementioned problems, we incorporated attapulgite (ATP) nanofibers, a natural mineral, into sodium alginate (SA), a biodegradable polysaccharide extracted from brown algae, through a phase inversion process, whereby a porous separator was prepared. The resulting SA/ATP separator is endowed with high thermal and chemical stability, enhanced retardancy to fire, and excellent wettability with commercial liquid electrolyte (420% uptake). Attractive cycling stability (82% capacity retention after 700 cycles) and rate capability (115 mAh g−1 at 5 C) in LiFePO4/Li cells are achieved with such separator, additionally. Moreover, as both ingredients are nontoxic, this eco-friendly separator can degrade in soil without inducing any contamination. This work offers a viable choice to process a thermally stable, eco-friendly separator and open up new possibilities to improve the safety of batteries while alleviating the “white pollution”.
KW - Attapulgite
KW - Lithium-ion batteries
KW - Separator
KW - Sodium alginate
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85068452251&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.ensm.2019.06.033
DO - 10.1016/j.ensm.2019.06.033
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85068452251
SN - 2405-8297
VL - 22
SP - 48
EP - 56
JO - Energy Storage Materials
JF - Energy Storage Materials
ER -
