A battery separator has performance enhancing additives or coatings, fillers with increased
friability, increased
ionic diffusion, decreased
tortuosity, increased wettability, reduced
oil content, reduced thickness, decreased electrical resistance, and / or increased
porosity. The separator in a battery reduces the water loss, lowers acid stratification, lowers the
voltage drop, and / or increases the CCA. The separators include or exhibit performance enhancing additives or coatings, increased
porosity, increased
void volume,
amorphous silica, higher
oil absorption silica, higher
silanol group silica, reduced electrical resistance, a shish-kebab structure or morphology, a
polyolefin microporous membrane containing particle-like filler in an amount of 40% or more by weight of the membrane and
ultrahigh molecular weight polyethylene having shish-kebab formations and the average repetition periodicity of the kebab formation from 1 nm to 150 nm, decreased sheet thickness, decreased
tortuosity, separators especially well-suited for enhanced flooded batteries.