Fabrication of Alternative Li-ion Battery Separators from Waste Polystyrene via Harnessing Inherent Impurities as Porogens
발표자
신동건 (인하대학교)
연구책임자
김희중 (인하대학교)
초록
내용
Chemical recycling of polystyrene (PS), which recovers styrene monomers from waste PS, has been extensively explored as a route toward a closed-loop PS life cycle. However, the depolymerization process typically yields a mixture of styrene and styrene-like impurities due to limited selectivity, which interferes with efficient repolymerization into high-molecular-weight PS. To address this challenge, we introduced a multifunctional crosslinker capable of inducing extremely high molecular weights. Interestingly, instead of suppressing the impurities, we utilized them as porogens through exchange with a non-solvent, inducing a phase separation. The resulting network was applied as a Li-ion battery separator, and it showed comparable electrochemical performance with a commercial separator.