Cross-linked Electrospun Gel Polymer Electrolytes for Lithium-Ion Batteries

• Published in: Chinese journal of polymer science 2024, Vol.42 (8), p.1021-1028
• Main Authors: Gong, Xue, Xiao, Qin, Li, Qing-Yin, Liang, Wen-Cui, Chen, Feng, Li, Long-Yu, Ren, Shi-Jie
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Block copolymers; Characterization and Evaluation of Materials; Chemistry; Chemistry and Materials Science; Condensed Matter Physics; Crosslinking; Dimensional stability; Electrochemical analysis; Electrolytes; Electrolytic cells; Electrospinning; High temperature; Industrial Chemistry/Chemical Engineering; Ion currents; Lithium; Lithium-ion batteries; Membranes; Polymer films; Polymer Sciences; Polymers; Polystyrene resins; Prepolymers; Research Article; Systems design; Thermal stability
• ISSN: 0256-7679; 1439-6203
• DOI: 10.1007/s10118-024-3136-2

Lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) benefit from an effective electrolyte system design in both terms of their safety and energy storage capability. Herein, a series of precursor membranes with high porosity were produced using electrospinning technology by mixing PVDF and triblock copolymer (PS-PEO-PS), resulting in a porous structure with good interconnections, which facilitates the absorbency of a large amount of electrolyte and further increases the ionic conductivity of gel polymer electrolytes (GPEs). It has been demonstrated that post-cross-linking of the precursor membranes increases the rigidity of the nanofibers, which allows the polymer film to be dimensionally stable up to 260 °C while maintaining superior electrochemical properties. The obtained cross-linked GPEs (CGPEs) showed high ionic conductivity up to 4.53×10 −3 S·cm −1 . With the CGPE-25, the assembled Li/LiFePO 4 half cells exhibited good rate capability and maintained a capacity of 99.4% and a coulombic efficiency of 99.3% at 0.1 C. These results suggest that the combination of electrospinning technique and post-cross-linking is an effective method to construct polymer electrolytes with high thermal stability and steadily decent electrochemical performance, particularly useful for Lithium-ion battery applications that require high-temperature usage.