Tailoring Surface Properties of Polymeric Separators for Lithium-Ion Batteries by Cyclonic Atmospheric-Pressure Plasma

This paper reported surface modification and characterization of polymeric separators by cyclonic atmospheric‐pressure plasma for Li‐ion battery use. Water contact angles of the plasma‐modified polymeric separator decreased with increasing treatment time and plasma power. Variations in surface morphology and chemical structure of the plasma‐modified polymeric separators were confirmed by FESEM and XPS. XPS analysis revealed that the surfaces of plasma‐modified polymeric separators had significantly higher concentrations of oxygen functional groups. Moreover, the cyclonic atmospheric‐pressure plasma‐modified polymeric separators showed excellent performance in electrochemical measurements. The cyclonic atmospheric‐pressure plasma treats the polymeric membrane separators for Li‐ion batteries. Static contact angle results indicate that this plasma rapidly improves the hydrophilicity of polymeric separator. A cyclonic atmospheric‐pressure plasma‐modified polymeric separator shows excellent performance in electrochemical measurements.