A High Performance Battery Separator

A key goal of our nation’s energy program is the development and proliferation of electric vehicles, plugin hybrid electric vehicles, and hybrid electric vehicles to replace our demand for gasoline and diesel engine powered vehicles. An important step for this electrification is the development of more cost effective, longer lasting, and more abusetolerant rechargeable batteries. Due to their low thermal and chemical stability, and low resistance to oxidation, current polymerbased battery separators have difficulties in meeting the increasingly stricter requirements for electric vehicle application. A groundbreaking breakthrough in battery separator technology is needed to address this formidable challenge. Leveraging our technical leadership on the preparation and processing of ceramic nanowires, we are developing a new generation high performance battery separator by using ceramic nanowires through a low cost manufacturing process. Our nanowire battery separator will provide lithium ion batteries with high safety, high energy density, long term stability, and high power density for various electric vehicle applications. We have successfully fabricated the world’s first flexible ceramic nanowire battery separators, and have demonstrated their high safety, long time stability and superior electrochemical performance at full cell level. All the key concepts have been experimentally validated. We will overcome any technical barriers to the large scale and low cost production and commercialization of our ceramic nanowire battery separators. And also we will fabricate high performance large format lithiumion pouch cells to convince battery manufacturers to adopt our ceramic nanowire separators for their electric vehicle battery use. The overall market for lithium rechargeable battery separators is expected to reach $3 billion in 2020, mainly driven by the demand for electric vehicles. The successful commercialization of this advanced nanowire separator technology will generate significant economic gains to the States as well as new employment for US workers. The adoption of this high safety battery separator technology will partially cure the public fear to the safety concern of lithium rechargeable batteries in electric vehicles, and help their fast and wide adoption in various electronic vehicles by automobile manufacturers. The large scale adoption of electric vehicles will reduce environmental pollution, improve air quality, improve human health, and reduce health care cost. Key Words: nanowire, ceramic, membrane, separator, battery, high safety, high energy density, long term stability, high power density. The nanowire battery separator technology is a critical technology for manufacturing high safety, high energy density, long term stability, and high power density lithiumion batteries desired by electric vehicles, hybrid electric vehicles, and plugin hybrid electric vehicles. This will be a quantum leap technology in battery separator industry.