The progress of human society is inseparable from the efforts of all walks of life, and the upgrading of various electronic products is inseparable from the efforts of our designers. In fact, many people do not understand the composition of electronic products, such as the separator of lithium-ion batteries.
Lithium-ion battery separator technology is currently a major pain point for my country's power lithium-ion battery industry. While positive and negative electrode materials and electrolytes are largely produced domestically, separator technology, a late start, suffers from low technological maturity among domestic companies. Although the domestic production rate of lithium-ion battery separators has been increasing in recent years, capturing the low-end 3C battery separator market remains crucial. The market share for high-end separators remains low. A significant portion of separators for high-end 3C and power lithium-ion batteries still relies on imports.
As is well known, the separator is one of the key internal components in the structure of a lithium-ion battery. It must prevent the positive and negative electrodes from contacting each other while ensuring the passage of electrolyte ions. Therefore, the quality of the separator directly affects the battery's capacity, cycle life, and safety performance. A high-quality separator plays an important role in improving the overall performance of the battery.
A common problem in current domestic lithium-ion battery separators is the lack of consistency, manifested primarily as irregular defects, substandard porosity, uneven thickness, and inconsistent pore and pore size distribution. Regarding porosity and pore size distribution, domestically produced uniaxially stretched PP separators are relatively close to foreign products. However, biaxially stretched PE membranes typically have lower porosity than foreign products, and their pore size distribution is also less than ideal. These issues represent a potential risk of the industry being "dependent on others." If these problems remain unresolved, they could hinder the healthy development of my country's lithium-ion battery industry.
The separator is one of the key components of a lithium-ion battery. The primary material for separators is a porous polymer membrane, including polyethylene and polypropylene. Separators used in lithium-ion batteries have stringent requirements regarding safety, permeability, porosity, and thickness.
A common problem in current domestic lithium-ion battery separators is inconsistency, manifested primarily as irregular defects, substandard porosity, uneven thickness, and inconsistent pore and pore size distribution. In terms of porosity and pore size distribution, domestically produced uniaxially stretched PP separators are relatively close to their foreign counterparts. However, biaxially stretched PE membranes typically have lower porosity than foreign products, and their pore size distribution is also less than ideal. These issues represent potential risks for the industry. If left unresolved, they could hinder the healthy development of my country's lithium-ion battery industry.
Inside a lithium-ion battery, charged ions flow between the positive and negative electrodes to create an electric current. A separator, located between the positive and negative electrodes inside the battery, not only prevents direct contact between them but also ensures the smooth passage of electrolyte ions. The electrolyte in a lithium-ion battery is like a river, and lithium ions are like boats traveling on it. The separator is like a dam around the waist. Each pore on the membrane acts like a gate on the dam. Under normal conditions, ions move freely between the positive and negative electrodes. This is the process of charge-discharge cycles.
Currently, lithium-ion battery separator manufacturing methods are mainly divided into wet and dry processes. my country has made significant breakthroughs in the dry process for lithium-ion battery separators, but in the field of wet process separators, domestic separator companies are limited by various factors such as processes and technologies, resulting in lower product levels and a heavy reliance on imported production equipment.
Like semiconductor chips, high-end separator technology also has a high barrier to entry. It requires not only huge investments, but also a strong R&D and production team, skilled process technology, and high-level production lines, and breakthroughs are unlikely in the short term. However, the US-China trade war and the ZTE and Huawei incidents have sounded an alarm for my country's manufacturing industry. For the entire power lithium battery industry, there is an urgent need to break through high-end lithium-ion battery separator technology as soon as possible.
High-end lithium-ion battery separator technology has a very high barrier to entry. It requires not only huge investment, but also a strong R&D and production team, highly skilled technology, and advanced production lines, all while achieving breakthroughs in a short period. However, the US-China trade war and the ZTE and Huawei incidents have sounded an alarm for my country's manufacturing industry. For the entire power lithium-ion battery industry, there is an urgent need to break through high-end lithium-ion battery separator technology as soon as possible.
