Li-ion batteries: news, progress, history and background

Polypore’s Celgard Files Suit Against Sumitomo Over Batteries - Bloomberg : "" The complaint, filed Feb. 22 in federal court in Charlotte, North Carolina, claims Sumitomo is infringing a patent issued in 2002 for a separator in high-energy rechargeable batteries. The separators prevent short circuits that can reduce efficiency and limit safety problems from overheating. (Via Bloomberg .)

Disclosed is a separator. The separator includes a planar non-woven fabric substrate having a plurality of pores, and a porous coating layer formed on at least one surface of the non-woven fabric substrate. The porous coating layer is composed of a mixture of filler particles and a binder polymer. The filler particles include conductive positive temperature coefficient (PTC) particles composed of a mixture of conductive particles and a low melting point resin having a melting point lower than that of the non-woven fabric substrate. Due to the presence of the conductive PTC particles, the porous coating layer can be imparted with a shutdown function against thermal runaway. In addition, the porous coating layer exhibits appropriate electrical conductivity. Therefore, the separator is suitable for use in a high-capacity electrochemical device. Inventors: Pil-Kyu Park, Jong-Hun Kim, Soon-Ho Ahn, Je-Young Kim Original Assignee: LG CHEM, LTD. Application number: 13/173,902; Publication...

New patent application from LG Chem : Provided is an electrochemical device comprising multi-stacked unit cells of full cells or bicells and a separation film disposed therebetween, whereby the separation film and separators are alternately stacked between electrode layers with an opposite polarity. Herein, as the separation film is formed of a material having a higher thermal shrinkage rate than that of the separator, the thermal stability of the device can be secured by stable induction of shutdown via thermal behavior of the separation film, without causing short-circuiting due to thermal shrinkage of the separator even when a temperature of a battery suddenly rises by internal or external factors. Application number: 13/107,122  Publication number: US 2011/0217586 A1 Filing date: May 13, 2011  Inventors: Je Young KIM, Pil Kyu PARK, Soonho AHN Original Assignee: LG CHEM, LTD.   O riginal separator placement New separator placement Also some Claims sug...

New Patent Application: Electrode Having Solid Electrolyte Interface And Secondary Battery Using The Same Original Assignee :  LG Chem, Ltd. Application number : 13/043,722 Publication number : US 2011/0159378 A1 Filing date : Mar 9, 2011 from the abstract: Disclosed is an electrode having a solid electrolyte interface (SEI) film partially or totally formed on a surface thereof, the SEI film being formed by electrical reduction of a cyclic diester compound and a sulfinyl group-containing compound. Further, a secondary battery comprising the electrode is disclosed. from the climes: A secondary battery comprising a cathode , an anode and an electrolyte, wherein the electrolyte comprises an electrolyte salt and an electrolyte solvent, the electrolyte further comprising both a cyclic diester compound and a sulfinyl group-containing compound; and/or the cathode or the anode is the electrode having a solid electrolyte interface (SEI) film partially or ...