In recent years

lithium batteries have attracted extensive interest owing to their recent application in large scale energy storage systems such as electric vehicles (EVs) and smart grids.However

the conventional microporous polyolefin separators suffer from a poor thermal shrinkage at relatively high temperatures above 90 ℃

which has raised serious concern over their ability to prevent internal electrical short circuit at high temperature conditions.As a kind of thermosetting polymer material

cellulose is one of the most abundant

renewable resources on the Earth and possesses outstanding properties such as biocompatibility

desired chemical stability and high decomposition temperature of above 270 ℃.The abundance

renewable and superior thermal stability could qualify cellulose a very promising material for battery application instead of fossil-based chemicals.Herein

the recent progress of cellulose-based composite separators for high power lithium ion batteries in literatures is briefly reviewed.The perspective and research frontiers in this fascinating field are presented as well.