Cellulose-based separators for lithium batteries: Source, preparation and performance

A separator is an essential part of the battery and plays a vital role both in its safety and performance. Over the last five years, cellulose-based separators for lithium batteries have drawn a lot of interest due to their high thermal stability, superior electrolyte wettability, and natural richness, which can give lithium batteries desired safety and performance improvement. In this review, we first go over where different types of cellulose come from and how they are treated before being used to make lithium battery separators. After that, we provide a summary of the cellulose-based separator manufacturing processes, and strategies for performance enhancement of cellulose-based separators in lithium batteries and their emerging applications are also discussed. Finally, we highlight the future development direction of cellulose-based separators and suggest some concerns that should be researched further. We hope this review will serve as a resource for future separator research aimed at boosting battery safety and performance.