Influence of the PESU/PVP based nanofibrous separators on the properties of LNMO cathode based Li-ion batteries

The properties of selected separators and their influence on the electrochemical properties of a high-voltage cathode material were investigated in this paper. The LiCr0.1Ni0.4Mn1.5O4 material synthesized by a solid-state reaction was chosen as the testing material. Four kinds of separators were selected for this study, including a glass fiber separator, a commercial separator made by Celgard and experimental separators made by the Nafigate Corporation. The main goal was to study the properties of the commercial and non-commercial separators and their influence on reached capacity, stability during cycling at high loads and stability during cycling at high temperatures. It was observed that the Nafigate separators are more thermally stable with lower shrinking up to 150 °C and exhibit comparable conductivity to the Celgard separator. In combination with the LiCr0.1Ni0.4Mn1.5O4 cathode, the Nafigate separator also achieves higher capacity at lower C-rate (0.5 C ~ 130 mAh·g-1) and at higher load (5 C) it reaches ~ 111 mAh·g-1. The Celgard separator reaches the capacity of ~ 118 mAh·g-1 at 0.5 C and ~ 83 mAh·g-1 at higher load (5 C).