Prediction and Computer Simulation of Pore Intersection in Lithium-Ion Battery Separator Membranes

The separator membrane is one of the four key materials of a lithium-ion battery, and the size of the separator membrane pores plays an important role on the internal resistance and safety of the battery. In this study, firstly, the relationship between the average pore size and the pore center to center distance with different porosity ratios in the separator membrane was analyzed with statistical theory. Then, a mathematical model was established to predict the probability of intersections and merging of the pores. In the end, the probability of intersections of pores with different porosity ratios were calculated and simulated; the differences between the results obtained from the two ways were 1.16%, 1.47% and 4.16%, when the porosity ratios were 21.36%, 40.16% and 53.34%, respectively, which indicated that the prediction model had good accuracy.