A Nacre-Inspired Separator Coating for Impact-Tolerant Lithium Batteries

Yong-Hui Song; Kai-Jin Wu; Tian-Wen Zhang; Lei-Lei Lu; Yong Guan; Fei Zhou; Xiu-Xia Wang; Yi-Chen Yin; Yi-Hong Tan; Feng Li; Te Tian; Yong Ni; Hong-Bin Yao; Shu-Hong Yu

doi:10.1002/adma.201905711

A Nacre-Inspired Separator Coating for Impact-Tolerant Lithium Batteries

Adv Mater. 2019 Dec;31(51):e1905711. doi: 10.1002/adma.201905711. Epub 2019 Nov 6.

Authors

Yong-Hui Song^{1

2}, Kai-Jin Wu³, Tian-Wen Zhang¹, Lei-Lei Lu^{1

2}, Yong Guan⁴, Fei Zhou^{1

2}, Xiu-Xia Wang⁵, Yi-Chen Yin^{1

2}, Yi-Hong Tan^{1

2}, Feng Li¹, Te Tian¹, Yong Ni³, Hong-Bin Yao^{1

2}, Shu-Hong Yu^{1

2

6}

Affiliations

¹ Division of Nanomaterials and Chemistry, Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at the Microscale, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui, 230026, China.
² Department of Chemistry, Department of Applied Chemistry, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui, 230026, China.
³ CAS Key Laboratory of Mechanical Behavior and Design of Materials, Department of Modern Mechanics, CAS Center for Excellence in Complex System Mechanics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui, 230027, China.
⁴ National Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui, 230026, China.
⁵ Center for Micro- and Nanoscale Research and Fabrication, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui, 230026, China.
⁶ Collaborative Innovation Center of Suzhou Nano Science and Technology, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui, 230026, China.

PMID: 31693256
DOI: 10.1002/adma.201905711

Abstract

The commercial ceramic nanoparticle coated microporous polyolefin separators used in lithium batteries are still vulnerable under external impact, which may cause short circuits and consequently severe safety threats, because the protective ceramic nanoparticle coating layers on the separators are intrinsically brittle. Here, a nacre-inspired coating on the separator to improve the impact tolerance of lithium batteries is reported. Instead of a random structured ceramic nanoparticle layer, ion-conductive porous multilayers consisting of highly oriented aragonite platelets are coated on the separator. The nacre-inspired coating can sustain external impact by turning the violent localized stress into lower and more uniform stress due to the platelet sliding. A lithium-metal pouch cell using the aragonite platelet coated separator exhibits good cycling stability under external shock, which is in sharp contrast to the fast short circuit of a lithium-metal pouch cell using a commercial ceramic nanoparticle coated separator.

Keywords: impact tolerance; nacre-inspired coating; porous aragonite platelets; safety; short circuit.

Abstract

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