Lithium-Air Battery Separator Patent Landscape
Lithium-Air Battery Separator Patent Landscape in 2026
The patent corpus for lithium-air battery separators is extremely small, with Massachusetts Institute of Technology holding the lead position and filing activity concentrated almost entirely in the United States. This nascent, thinly filed space presents more open terrain than contested ground, making it an early-mover opportunity for well-resourced R&D teams.
MIT leads a near-empty field with virtually no competitive crowding
Massachusetts Institute of Technology ranks first with 2 patent records, followed by Chengdu New Keli Chemical Science Co., Ltd. with 1 patent record — together accounting for all identifiable filers in this space.
The top five filers account for 100% of the hundred largest filers’ combined total, which in practice reflects a corpus so small that no meaningful tier gap exists between leaders and challengers; the field is essentially uncontested.
| # | Applicant | Patent records | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology | 2 | |
| 2 | Chengdu New Keli Chemical Science Co., Ltd. | 1 |
MIT’s lead position, grounded in layered-product and laminate structures, suggests that separator architecture originates from materials research rather than battery manufacturing, leaving industrialization pathways largely open.
The most recent filing years carry inherent publication lag and likely understate current activity; the apparent absence of filings after 2018 should be interpreted cautiously. Longer-window growth, applicant concentration, and technology-route coverage are therefore more reliable signals than the latest-year bar alone.
A single filing peak in 2018 followed by no recorded subsequent activity
The annual trend and technology composition charts together reveal a field that has not yet entered sustained growth — one patent record appeared in 2018, and no further filings have been recorded through 2026.
Annual filing trend
One patent record was filed in 2018; all other years from 2017 to 2026 show zero filings. Given publication lag, very recent years may not yet reflect any new activity, but the multi-year gap since 2018 is notable regardless.
↗ Hover for values · click a bar to ask EurekaTechnology composition
H01M (Batteries, cells and fuel cells) accounts for the largest share of IPC coverage, followed by B32B (Layered products and laminates), indicating that separator patents in this space address both electrochemical cell architecture and the physical construction of multilayer membranes.
↗ Hover for values · click a bar to ask EurekaHighly cited patent families surfaced by the query
Citation-heavy patent families returned by the query. Use this section as citation context, not as a curated list of the most topic-specific patents.
Lithium-air battery separators and related composi…
Battery separators for lithium-air batteries are provided. In some embodiments, a lithium-air battery may comprise one or more electrochemical cells including an anode, a cathode, an electrolyte, and a battery separator positioned between the anode and the cathode. The battery separator may comprise a porous membrane having a lithium ion conductive film on… (excerpt from the patent abstract)
| # | Patent | Citations |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lithium-air battery separators and related composi… | 15 |
| 2 | Lithium-air battery separators and related composi… | 6 |
| 3 | 一种水系锂空气电池钙钛矿型隔膜的改性方法 | 2 |
Ranked by total forward citations. Citation counts favour older and broadly cited patent families, and broad or adjacent patents may appear when they match the search scope. Treat this section as citation context, not as a curated list of the most topic-specific patents. Some patent titles may be shown in their original, non-English language where an accurate translation could not be guaranteed.
What the structure means for R&D strategy in lithium-air separators
With a corpus of 1 patent family and two identifiable applicants, this topic sits firmly in the pre-competitive phase. The strategic implications differ sharply from crowded battery chemistries.
Pre-competitive: no lifecycle stage can yet be assigned
The evidence does not support assigning a formal lifecycle stage — the corpus is too small to establish a growth curve. Activity is confined to a single recorded filing year (2018), which places the topic in an embryonic state. Teams entering now would be shaping, not joining, an established patent landscape.
EmbryonicExtreme concentration in a near-empty field
The top five filers account for 100% of the hundred largest filers’ combined total, but this reflects an absence of competition rather than dominance by a large incumbent. With only two identified applicants, there is effectively no barrier from patent thickets. A new entrant could establish a leading position with a small, targeted filing program.
Near-zero crowdingNo co-applicant activity recorded
Evidence pending — no co-filing relationships are present in the data. This absence may reflect the early, exploratory nature of the field, where individual academic groups publish independently before forming industrial partnerships. Monitoring collaborative grants and academic publications may provide earlier signals than patent filings here.
No co-filers on recordUS-primary jurisdiction, China secondarily represented
The United States accounts for 2 patent records and China for 1, reflecting MIT’s US-primary strategy and a single Chinese industrial filer (Chengdu New Keli). No other jurisdictions appear in the evidence, meaning protection in Europe, Japan, Korea, and other markets is absent — a filing gap that new entrants could exploit to secure early territorial coverage.
US + CN onlyGo beyond the landscape: Eureka’s TRIZ Solution agent breaks down an R&D problem and returns patented concept solutions, each with a technical approach and cited patent & literature evidence.
Co-filing pairs, ranked by the number of jointly-filed patent families.
MIT leads on materials structure; Chengdu New Keli is the sole industrial presence
Two applicants define the entirety of recorded activity. MIT’s filings emphasize laminate and layered-product architecture, while Chengdu New Keli’s single record focuses on cell-level battery and separator components.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
MIT holds 2 patent records, both concentrated in B32B layered products and laminates (B32B27, B32B3, B32B7), indicating a materials-science approach to separator design. Applicant momentum data is not available for this filer, so trajectory cannot be quantified, but the institution’s record includes the most-cited work in the corpus.
patent records: 2Chengdu New Keli Chemical Science Co., Ltd.
Chengdu New Keli holds 1 patent record focused on H01M battery and separator subclasses (H01M12, H01M2, H01M50), suggesting a more application-oriented, cell-integration angle. As the only identified Chinese industrial filer, it represents a distinct entry path from the academic-materials route taken by MIT. Applicant momentum data is not available.
patent records: 1Under-served technical branches adjacent to the core separator space
With white-space candidates not formally computed from the evidence, the adjacent branches below are drawn from the observed IPC composition and known gaps. They are presented as observations of relative sparsity, not validated commercial opportunities.
Solid electrolyte / ceramic membrane separators (H01M 10/056)
No filings in the corpus explicitly address solid-state or ceramic-membrane separator architectures for lithium-air cells — a technically adjacent area that could improve oxygen-ion selectivity and suppress lithium dendrite penetration. The entry path involves adapting solid-electrolyte processing methods from lithium-ion solid-state battery work into lithium-air form factors, a gap plausible for both materials research groups and specialty ceramics manufacturers.
Search this in Eureka →Functional coating layers for oxygen selectivity (B32B 27 surface treatment)
MIT’s filings occupy B32B27 (layered polymer laminates) but the evidence does not show filings targeting selective oxygen-permeation coatings or hydrophobic surface treatments that block water ingress — a critical performance parameter in aqueous lithium-air systems. This represents a sparse adjacent branch with plausible technical value for groups working on membrane surface chemistry, accessible via existing polymer-coating and atomic-layer-deposition expertise.
Search this in Eureka →How the two filers differ by technology route
Strength of each leader across the main technology routes.
| Player | H01M 12 · Batteries, cells & fuel cells | H01M 2 · Batteries, cells & fuel cells | H01M 50 · Batteries, cells & fuel cells | B32B 27 · Layered products & laminates | B32B 3 · Layered products & laminates |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Massachusetts Institute of Technology | Strong · 2 | Strong · 2 | Strong · 2 | Strong · 2 | Strong · 2 |
| Chengdu New Keli Chemical Science Co., Ltd. | Strong · 1 | Strong · 1 | Strong · 1 | Absent | Absent |
Frequently asked questions
The evidence identifies 1 patent family in scope for this topic, making it one of the smallest patent corpora in the battery materials space.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology is the leading filer with 2 patent records, followed by Chengdu New Keli Chemical Science Co., Ltd. with 1 patent record.
The United States accounts for 2 patent records and China for 1. No other jurisdictions appear in the evidence, leaving Europe, Japan, Korea, and other markets without recorded coverage.
H01M (Batteries, cells and fuel cells) is the primary IPC class with 3 patent records, followed by B32B (Layered products and laminates) with 2 patent records, reflecting both electrochemical and materials-structure dimensions of separator design.
No co-applicant relationships are recorded in the evidence. The two identified filers — MIT and Chengdu New Keli — appear to have filed independently, with no cross-institutional collaborations visible in the data.
Only one filing year (2018) shows any recorded activity, with zero filings in all other years from 2017 to 2026. A lifecycle stage cannot be formally assigned from this data. The field should be treated as embryonic, and publication lag means very recent filings may not yet be visible.
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Disclaimer. This page is generated from PatSnap Eureka data drawn from a limited snapshot of global patent and scientific-literature records, and is provided for general information and reference only.
Patent data carries inherent limitations: recent filings (typically the most recent 18–24 months) are under-counted due to standard publication lag; counts may be reported at either a patent-family or a patent-record basis and are not always directly comparable; classification, applicant-name, and citation data may contain errors, duplicates, or omissions; and the underlying search query defines and constrains the scope shown. As a result, the analysis may be incomplete or inaccurate and may not reflect the full technology landscape.
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