Poly(vinylidene fluoride)/poly(acrylonitrile) blend fibrous membranes by centrifugal spinning for high‐performance lithium ion battery separators

Fibrous membranes are promising as high‐performance lithium ion battery separators because of high porosity and superior electrolyte uptake. Electrospinning is a popular approach to produce fibrous membranes, but its production rate is very low. As a comparison, mass production of fibrous membranes can be achieved by centrifugal spinning. This study reports fibrous membranes based on poly(vinylidene fluoride)/poly(acrylonitrile) blends by centrifugal spinning and their application as lithium ion battery separators. The blend fibrous membranes have high electrolyte uptake of about 300%, excellent dimensional stability at 180 °C and good mechanical strength over 18 MPa. The coin cells with the blend fibrous membranes as separators show high discharge capacity of 147.7 mAh/g at 0.2 C and superior C‐rate performance. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2017 , 134 , 44515.