Separator for electrochemical energy accumulators and converters

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12351667-B2
Application number	US-201917312953-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 6, 2019
Priority date	Dec 12, 2018
Publication date	Jul 8, 2025
Grant date	Jul 8, 2025

Abstract

A separator for at least one of electrochemical energy accumulators or converters includes: a porous substrate with a comb polymer, the comb polymer containing a polymer main chain along several lateral chains that are covalently bonded to the polymer main chain. At least one of the lateral chains has at least one Lewis-acid or Lewis-base functionality.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A separator for an electrochemical energy device, comprising:
a porous substrate with a comb polymer,
the comb polymer containing several lateral chains that are covalently bonded to the polymer main chain,
wherein at least one of the lateral chains has at least one Lewis-acid or Lewis-base functionality,
wherein the separator has a Gurley value of at least 500 s or wherein the air permeability of the separator cannot be measured.

2. The separator of claim 1 , wherein an ion conductivity of the separator is decoupled from an air permeability of the separator, such that the ion conductivity of the separator can be adjusted independently of the air permeability of the separator.

3. The separator of claim 1 ,
wherein the polymer main chain has polymerized monomers selected from a group consisting of: acrylates, methacrylates, acrylic acids, methacrylic acids, acrylamides, methacrylamides, vinylamides, vinylpyridines, N-vinylimidazoles, N-vinyl-2-methylimidazoles, vinyl halides, styrenes, 2-methylstyrenes, 4-methylstyrenes, 2-(n-butyl) styrenes, 4-(n-butyl) styrenes, 4-(n-decyl) styrenes, N,N-diallylamines, N,N-diallyl-N-alkylamines, vinyl- and allyl-substituted nitrogen heterocycles, vinyl ethers, vinylsulfonic acids, allylsulfonic acids, vinylphosphonic acids, styrene sulfonic acids, acrylonitriles and methacrylnitriles, and mixtures thereof.

4. The separator of claim 1 ,
wherein the lateral chain has polymerized monomers selected from a group consisting of: acrylates, methacrylates, acrylamides, methacrylamides, vinylamides, vinylpyridines, N-vinylimidazoles, N-vinyl-2-methylimidazoles, vinyl halides, styrenes, 2-methylstyrenes, 4-methylstyrenes, 2-(n-butyl) styrenes, 4-(n-butyl) styrenes, 4-(n-decyl) styrenes, N,N-diallylamines, N,N-diallyl-N-alkylamines, vinyl- and allyl-substituted nitrogen heterocycles, vinyl ethers, acrylonitriles and methacrylnitriles, acrylic acids, methacrylic acids, vinylsulfonic acids, allylsulfonic acids, vinylphosphonic acids, styrene sulfonic acids, and mixtures thereof.

5. The separator of claim 1 , wherein at least one lateral chain is formed from polymerized macromonomers, wherein each macromonomer comprises an oligomer or polymer containing at least one polymerizable group.

6. The separator of claim 1 , wherein the comb polymer is at least partially crosslinked.

7. The separator of claim 1 , further comprising:
bifunctional or polyfunctional monomers selected from a group consisting of: diacrylates, dimethyl acrylates, triacrylates, trimethacrylates, tetraacrylates, tetramethacrylates, pentaacrylates, pentamethacrylates, hexaacrylates, hexamethacrylates, diacrylamides, dimethacrylamides, triacrylamides, trimethacrylamides, tetraacrylamides, tetramethacrylamides, pentaacrylamides, pentamethacrylamides, hexaacrylamides, hexamethacrylamides, divinyl ethers, divinyl benzenes, 3,7-dimethyl-1,6-octadien-3-ol, and mixtures thereof, wherein the bifunctional or polyfunctional monomers are copolymerized to form polymerized crosslinking units, wherein the polymerized crosslinking units crosslink the comb polymer by: covalently bonding the polymer main chain to another polymer main chain, covalently bonding the polymer main chain to one of the several lateral chains, covalently bonding one of the several lateral chains to another of the several lateral chains, or a combination thereof.

8. The separator of claim 1 , wherein a proportion of comb polymer, based upon a weight of the porous substrate, is 20 wt % to 200 wt %.

9. The separator of claim 1 , wherein the porous substrate is selected from a group consisting of: microporous membrane, textile fabrics, woven fabrics, knitted fabrics, papers, and nonwovens.

10. The separator of claim 1 , wherein the separator has at least one of a thickness of 10 μm to 2,000 μm or a weight of 6 g/m 2 to 400 g/m 2 .

11. The separator of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the Lewis-acid or Lewis-base functionalities are selected from a group consisting of: primary amino groups, secondary amino groups, tertiary amino groups, quaternary amino groups, imino, enamino, lactam, nitrate, nitrite, carboxyl, carboxylate ketyl, aldehyde, lactone, carbonate, sulfonyl, sulfonate, sulfide, sulfite, sulfate, sulfonamide, thioether, phosphonyl, phosphonate, phosphate, phosphoric acid ester, ether, hydroxyl, hydroxide, halide, coordinately-bonded metal ion, transition metal ion, thiocyanate, and cyanide groups.

12. The separator of claim 1 , wherein the lateral chains have a molecular weight of 220 g/mol to 5,000 g/mol.

13. The separator of claim 1 , wherein the electrochemical energy device is one of an accumulator or a converter.

14. A method of producing the separator of claim 1 , comprising:
providing the porous substrate;
providing a reaction mixture comprising a polymerization initiator and at least one of
a polymerizable monomer having the at least one of Lewis-acid or Lewis-base functionality and a bi- or polyfunctional monomer, or
a polymerizable macromonomer having the at least one of Lewis-acid or Lewis-base functionality;

impregnating or coating the porous substrate with the reaction mixture; and
polymerizing at least one of the monomers or macromonomers to form the comb polymer, which contains the polymer main chain and several lateral chains covalently bonded to the polymer main chain,
wherein at least one of the lateral chains has the at least one of Lewis-acid or Lewis-base functionality.

15. An electrochemical energy device, comprising a separator according to claim 1 .

16. The electrochemical energy device of claim 15 , wherein the electrochemical energy device is one of an accumulator or a converter.

17. The electrochemical energy device wherein the accumulator or converter includes at least one of a battery, a capacitor, a fuel cell or an electrolyzer.

Assignees

• Freudenberg Carl Kg

Inventors

• Roth Michael
• Smith Iain
• Waschinski Christian
• Falusi Sandra
• Sutter Marco

Classifications

• H01M2008/1095

  Fuel cells with polymeric electrolytes · CPC title

• H01M8/18

  Regenerative fuel cells, e.g. redox flow batteries or secondary fuel cells · CPC title

• H01M8/1023

  having only carbon, e.g. polyarylenes, polystyrenes or polybutadiene-styrenes · CPC title

• H01M50/414

  Synthetic resins, e.g. thermoplastics or thermosetting resins · CPC title

• H01M50/417

  Polyolefins · CPC title