Design of Block-Copolymer Nanoporous Membranes for Robust and Safer Lithium-Ion Battery Separators

Lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) suffer from unsatisfied performance and safety risks mainly because of the separators. Herein, a block copolymer (BCP) composed of robust and electrolyte-affinitive polysulfone (PSF) and Li⁺-affinitive polyethylene glycol (PEG) is rationally designed to prepare a new type of LIB separator. The copolymer is subjected to selective swelling, producing nanoporous membranes with PEG chains enriched along the pore walls. Intriguingly, when used as LIB separators, thus-produced BCP membranes efficiently integrate the merits of both PSF and PEG chains, endowing the separators thermal resistance as high as 150 °C and excellent wettability. Importantly, the nanoporous separator is able to close the pores with a temperature of 125 °C, offering the battery a thermal shutdown function. The membrane exhibits ultrahigh electrolyte uptake up to 501% and a prominent ionic conductivity of 10.1 mS cm^-1 at room temperature. Batteries assembled with these membranes show excellent discharge capacity and C-rate performance, outperforming batteries assembled from other separators including the extensively used Celgard 2400. This study demonstrates a facile strategy, selective swelling of block copolymer, to engineer high-performance and safer LIB separators, which is also applicable to produce advanced copolymer-based separators for other types of batteries.