A quasi-solid composite separator with high ductility for safe and high-performance lithium-ion batteries

The safety of lithium ion batteries is correlated closely to the mechanical property and thermal stability of separators. The polymer/ceramic particle composite separators are widely investigated for quasi-solid gel separators of lithium ion batteries, but the nonuniform dispersion of ceramic particles limits their performance. In this study, ball-milled Al-doped Li6.75La3Zr1.75Ta0.25O12 suspension is incorporated into poly (vinylidene fluoride-co-hexafluoropropylene) gel to prepare a highly uniform quasi-solid composite separator. The results show that adding only 4.29 wt% Li6.75La3Zr1.75Ta0.25O12 into PVDF-HFP increases ductility by three times and the mechanical strength by 38% as compared with pure PVDF-HFP separator. Batteries with the composite separator show significantly improved cyclic stability and rate performance at both room temperature and temperatures up to 80 degrees C. In particular, the composite separator promotes homogenous Li+ flux through the separator and suppresses Li dendrite growth in Li-metal based batteries.