Teijin’s mass-produced aramid nanofiber

Published On: May 18, 2012

Teijin Techno Products Limited, a Teijin group company producing advanced aramid fibers, has announced its development of the world’s first mass-producible aramid nanofiber to offer reliable heat and oxidation resistance together with high quality. Until now, aramid nanofibers have been produced only in laboratories, so this first commercially viable product represents a significant step forward in the evolution of this promising new material.

The nanofiber, which is uniformly sized with a diameter of just several hundred nanometers, is based on Teijin’s proprietary Teijinconex® heat-resistant meta-aramid. It will be marketed in the form of nonwoven sheet for separators in lithium ion batteries (LIBs). Commercial production is targeted at 2014.

Teijin’s highly heat-resistant aramid nanofiber sheet maintains its shape even at 300°C. It is also highly resistant to oxidation. These features are expected to enhance the safety of high-power, high-capacity, energy-dense LIBs for vehicles and stationary storage, offering significant advantages over conventional separators in terms of reducing the risk of ignition in high-capacity, energy-dense applications.

Other features that Teijin Techno Products expects to achieve include:

  • High porosity promotes smooth mobility of the electrolyte, resulting in higher output and faster charging.
  • Large surface area, a feature of nanofibers, as well as high porosity, hold the electrolyte effectively to maintain battery performance at low temperatures, when ion conductivity drops.
  • As a nonwoven sheet, it absorbs electrolyte more rapidly than conventional polyolefin-based separators, helping to shorten the time required to pour electrolyte into the battery, thereby reducing the production cost of large batteries.

The company expects to develop other applications for its thin, heat-resistant aramid nanofiber sheet, such as separators for capacitors; high-performance, heat-resistant filters; and heat-resistant cleaners for office automation equipment.

Source: Teijin