This paper contributes to the stability analysis for nonlinear impulsive dynamical systems based on a vector Lyapunov function and its divergence operator. The new method relies on a 2D time domain representation. Different types of stability notions for a class of nonlinear impulsive systems are studied using a vector Lyapunov function approach. The results are applied to analyze the stability of a class of Lipschitz nonlinear impulsive systems based on Linear Matrix Inequalities. Some numerical examples illustrate the feasibility of the proposed approach. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.