Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, Vol.59, No.12, 5227-5237, 2020
Alkaline Battery Separators with High Electrolyte Absorption from Forced Assembly Coextruded Composite Tapes
In this work, two-component fibrous separators with high electrolyte absorption were fabricated by the delamination of oriented polymer tape which was produced using a unique coextrusion and multiplication process. Two different separators were created from polypropylene/high-density polyethylene (PP/HDPE) and polypropylene/polyamide 6 (PP/PA6) by this process. The separators have a pore size of 10 mu m, high porosity, and high surface area. The electrolyte absorption (KOH uptake) of PP/HDPE separators and PP/PA6 separators are almost 3 times higher than that of commercial separators. The battery performance of the PP/HDPE separators and the PP/PA6 separators were evaluated in a coin cell battery configuration. The charge-discharge efficiency of coin cells made from the PP/PA6 separator is found to be 6% higher than the commercial separators.