Facile control of nanoporosity in Cellulose Acetate using Nickel(II) nitrate additive and water pressure treatment for highly efficient battery gel separators.

We succeed in fabricating nearly straight nanopores in cellulose acetate (CA) polymers for use as battery gel separators by utilizing an inorganic hexahydrate (Ni(NO3)2·6H2O) complex and isostatic water pressure treatment. The continuous nanopores are generated when the polymer film is exposed to isostatic water pressure after complexing the nickel(II) nitrate hexahydrate (Ni(NO3)2·6H2O) with the CA. These results can be attributed to the manner in which the polymer chains are weakened because of the plasticization effect of the Ni(NO3)2·6H2O that is incorporated into the CA. Furthermore, we performed extensive molecular dynamics simulation for confirming the interaction between electrolyte and CA separator. The well controlled CA membrane after water pressure treatment enables fabrication of highly reliable cell by utilizing 2032-type coin cell structure. The resulting cell performance exhibits not only the effect of the physical morphology of CA separator, but also the chemical interaction of electrolyte with CA polymer which facilitates the Li-ion in the cell.