ForceSpinning of polyacrylonitrile for mass production of lithium‐ion battery separators

Abstract

We present results on the Forcespinning V R (FS) of Polyacrylonitrile (PAN) for mass production of polymer nanofiber membranes as separators for Lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). Our results presented here show that uniform, highly fibrous mats from PAN produced using Forcespinning V R , exhibit improved electrochemical properties such as electrolyte uptake, low interfacial resistance, high oxidation limit, high ionic conductivity, and good cycling performance when used in lithium ion batteries compared to commercial PP separator materials. This article introduces ForceSpinning V R , a cost effective technique capable of mass producing high quality fibrous mats, which is completely different technology than the commonly used in-house centrifugal method. This Forcespinning V R technology is thus the beginning of the nano/micro fiber revolution in large scale production for battery separator application. This is the first time to report results on the cycle performance of LIB-based polymer nanofiber separators made by Forcespinning V R technology. V C 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2016, 133, 42847.

Effect of Polymer Concentration, Rotational Speed, and Solvent Mixture on Fiber Formation Using Forcespinning®

“…Nanofibers can be prepared from polymers using different processing methods including electrospinning [13], melt blowing [14], centrifugal spinning, Forcespinning ® (FS) [15], liquid shearing spinning [16], touch and brush spinning [17], and most recently the reactive magnetospinning method [18,19]. The melt blowing process has been mainly developed to fabricate polyolefin fibers with a high throughput and fiber diameters ranging between several microns down to hundreds of nanometers.…”

Fabrication and characterization of centrifugally spun poly(acrylic acid) nanofibers

“…The thermal properties of the PAA bulk powder and nanofibers were acquired using TA Instruments, DSC Q100 (USA). To obtain thermograms for the PAA nanofibers, the DSC scans were conducted from 40 to 225 C at heating and cooling rates of 1,2,5,10,15,20,25,30,40,45, and 50 C min −1 . All tests were completed under a nitrogen atmosphere.…”

“…Polymer nanofibers have attracted increasing interest in the past decades for several applications due to their high surface area to volume ratio, flexibility, and outstanding properties compared to their bulk material counterparts. The uniqueness of these nanofibers has made them incredibly useful in many fields such as drug delivery, tissue engineering, energy storage, wound dressing applications, and many more. Several methods have been used to fabricate polymer nanofibers such as electrospinning, melt blowing, centrifugal spinning (CF), coextrusion with a unique exit cutting die liquid shear spinning, and touch and brush spinning …”

A study of rheological limitations in rotary jet spinning of polymer nanofibers through modeling and experimentation

“…Only a handful of polymers such as poly(butylene terephthalate) (PBT), polypropylene (PP), polycaprolactone (PCL), and poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) have been reported to date for RJS of polymer melts,. Polymer solutions are more widely studied in RJS, with fibers being successfully spun from polyamide 6 (PA6), poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO), PCL, poly( L ‐lactic acid) (PLLA), and polyacrylonitrile (PAN) solutions. RJS requires a suitable range of fluid viscosity values for a fiber to form.…”