Composite membranes have been fabricated made of ultrafine PVDF fibers via a tip-induced electrospinning (TIE) process and Al2O3 nanoparticles via a dip-coating process. These membranes exhibit good thermal stability and electrochemical properties as the separators for applications in lithium ion batteries (LIBs). Experimental results show that the as-fabricated separators may mechanically contract less than 2% when kept at a high temperature of 140 °C for an hour showing good thermal stability as compared with commercial polypropylene separators and electrospun PVDF membranes. The membrane has a measured porosity of 55.8% and ionic conductivity of 2.23 mS cm−1, achieving a low battery discharge capacity loss of 1.8% after 100 cycles in the 1.0C-rate tests, and a retention rate of 92.9% in the 4C-rate tests. These results show the great potential of PVDF/Al2O3 separators in LIB applications under high temperature and high current/power operations.
