In an endeavor to improve the thermal stability of lithium-ion batteries (LIBs), a new kind of ceramic coated separator has been developed based on introducing one-dimensional silica tubes (ST) to one side of a commercial polyethylene (PE) porous separator. The ST interpenetrating network diminishes the thermal-induced dimensional change of the commercial separator without compromising the cell performance. In particular, compared to spherical silica particle (SP) coated separator, the ST coated separator exhibits significantly enhanced thermal stability at elevated temperature. Furthermore the ST coated separator shows better mechanical performance as well as the improved electrolyte absorption and retention behavior, which provides a promising solution to replace conventional polymer separator for high-performance LIBs. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.