Recent progress of poly(p-phenylene terephthalamide) separator for lithium ion battery

Lithium-ion batteries develop rapidly these years and receive wide attention for their advantages of no memory effect, outstanding cycle retention and high power density. However, widely used polyolefin separators are still unsafe because they will shrink at high temperature. In order to solve this problem, people compose polyolefin separators with heat-resistant inorganic or organic materials to endow separators with resistance to thermal shrinkage as well as shutdown function. Among all these materials, poly(p-phenylene terephthalamide)(PPTA) separators is very promising for the thermal stability, good chemical resistance and excellent mechanical properties. However, it is still a great technical challenge for PPTA as separator due to the difficulty in manufacturing property. This review focuses on the technical developments of PPTA pure and composite separators, and introduces the contribution of our research team on PPTA separator. Pure and composite PPTA separators can be produced using PPTA nanofiber self-assembly method, which results in controllable thickness, porosity of separator and excellent battery properties. The results show that PPTA separator is promising in lithium ion battery application as safe separator.