High-Performance Films and Membranes
Development & Commercialization
Development & Commercialization
LiSO film & membrane products are GREENER, clear, opaque, porous, sorbent, conductive and/or ultrahigh barrier; they withstand extreme heat, harsh electrochemical environments, weather, and other demanding conditions. LiSO technologies are ECO-FRIENDLY, to deliver a unique combination of performances: permselectivity, conductivity, strength, sorbability, productivity, properties and cost.
NanoPorous Films (NPF)
LiSO NPFs are superior in performance, i.e., porosity, strength, ionic and/or electic conductivity, insulation, uniformity, dimensional stability at elevated temperatures, and resistance to harsh chemicals and weather. Our NPFs find a broad range of applications in energy storage and harvesting, battery separator films (BSFs), ion-conductive and selective membranes, polymer polyelectrolytes, solar cell backsheets, active packaging, sorbent labeling, printing, etc.
DSC THERMAL PROPERTIES:
- LiSO NPFs are wettable, alongside excellent thermal and chemical stabilities; and yet, provide dual safety features, i.e., low and high Tm's of 130 to 400oC; thereby, unparalleled in cycling and safety performance.
- Existing polyolefin (PE and PP) BSFs are unwettable to electrolytes with a low Tm of 160oC or less; thus, poor in performance and safety.
- Nonwoven separators (NWV) can provide a high Tm of 250oC, but thick, fragile, nonuniform, high cost, and yet substantially low in strength and chemical resistance.
Sorbent Membranes (SBM)
LiSO SBMs are made of a wide range of materials, compositions, and pore and film structures at high productivity. Our SBMs deliver: i) superior sorption kinetics and capacity; ii) excellent permselectivity towards gases, CO2, volatile, fluids and water; iii) exceptional strength and adhesion; iv) wettability toward polar and nonpolar substrates, and v) little pressure drop of analytes across the products.
LiSO substantially improves interfacial adhesion of multilayer SBMs, by design and control over interdiffusion of dissimilar molecules. The strong adhesion is created by co-mingling components diffused across the layer boundaries as well as by stress-induced interlocking in-situ of such interdiffused molecules, respectively during the laminar melt and extensional solid flows.
UltraHigh Barrier Films (UHB)
LiSO UHBs enable a wide range of barrier applications with low oxygen (O2) and moisture (H2O) transmission rates as well as exceptional metal and interlayer adhesion:
- Clear and Metallized (MET) Packaging Films, etc.
- Photovolatic (PV) Encapsulants & UltraWeatherable Backsheets
- Flexible Electronics
- Current Collectors for Energy Storage Devices
HIGH & UH BARRIER PROPERTIES:
- LiSO Met-BOPP: The metallized oriented polypropylene films (Met-BOPP) will undergo no metal cracks and thus, no barrier degradation during use or post-film converting processing under substantive tension.
- Existing BOPP: Commercial high and ultrahigh Met-BOPP films suffer greatly from poor metal adhesion, metal cracks and barrier degradation.
DSC Thermograms for LiSO Prototype NSF
vs. Commercial BSFs
Sorbability of Various LiSOPrototype SBMs
Barrier Degradation of Met-BOPP Films: LiSO
vs. Existing Films