In this paper, a composite membrane with nonwoven polyimide (PI) membrane as structural support and polyethylene (PE) particles coating layer as a thermal shutdown layer, is fabricated as the separator for lithium-ion battery. Different from PI nonwoven membrane, the PE coating PI nonwoven composite membrane (PE-PI-S) not only shows excellent thermal shutdown function, similar to traditional multilayer PP/PE/PP separator, but also exhibits much higher thermal stability, better wettability to the polar electrolyte and lower internal resistance than the PP/PE/PP separator. The electrolyte uptake and ionic conductivity of PE-PI-S increase from 58%, 0.84 mS cm(-1) to 400%, 1.34 mS cm(-1), respectively. Furthermore, the thermal shutdown function of PE-PI-S can be controlled widely in the temperature range from 120 degrees C to more than 200 degrees C while the multilayer PP/PE/PP separator only with a shutdown temperature range from 130 degrees C to 160 degrees C. Lithium ion battery with PE-PI-S nonwoven separator also shows excellent stable cycling and good rate performance. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.