The battery industry has seen enormous growth over the past few years.The majority of this surge can be attributed to the widespread use of cell phones, personal digital assistants (PDA's), laptop computers, and other wireless electronics.The world market for batteries was approximately $41 billion in 2000, which included $16.2 billion primary and $24.9 billion secondary cells. A separator is a porous membrane placed between electrodes of opposite polarity, permeable to ionic flow but preventing electric contact of the electrodes.