One-step fabrication of Polyvinylidene fluoride membranes enriched with electroactive β-Phase for secondary battery separators via simultaneous near infrared radiation and electrospinning.

• One-step fabrication of polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) membranes enriched with β-Phase is developed. • Electrospun PVDF with near infrared radiation (NIR) exhibit dense and compact porous membranes. • The NIR-treated electrospun PVDF show significant improvements as secondary battery separators. This study reports a one-step fabrication method to prepare polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) membranes enriched with electroactive β-Phase in application for secondary battery separator using near infrared radiation (NIR) heated electrospinning techniques. The electrospun PVDF fibrous membranes with NIR heating applied were investigated by various characterizations and measurements. The results present that NIR heating during electrospinning not only increased the β phase content and mechanical strength of the PVDF membranes but also improved the electrochemical performances, suggesting its potential suitability in the battery separator applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]