A phase inversion based sponge-like polysulfonamide/SiO2 composite separator for high performance lithium-ion batteries

In this work,a sponge-like polysulfonamide(PSA)/SiOcomposite membrane is unprecedentedly prepared by the phase inversion method,and successfully demonstrated as a novel separator of lithium-ion batteries(LIBs).Compared to the commercial polypropylene(PP) separator,the sponge-like PSA/SiOcomposite possesses better physical and electrochemical properties,such as higher porosity,ionic conductivity,thermal stability and flame retarding ability.The LiCoO/Li half-cells using the sponge-like composite separator demonstrate superior rate capability and cyclability over those using the commercial PP separator.Moreover,the sponge-like composite separator can ensure the normal operation of LiCoO/Li half-cell at an extremely high temperature of 90 °C,while the commercial PP separator cannot.All these encouraging results suggest that this phase inversion based sponge-like PSA/SiOcomposite separator is really a promising separator for high performance LIBs.