Preparation and electrochemical properties of polymer Li-ion battery reinforced by non-woven fabric

Abstract

A polymer electrolyte based on poly(vinylidene) fluoride-hexafluoropropylene was prepared by evaporating the solvent of dimethyl formamide, and non-woven fabric was used to reinforce the mechanical strength of polymer electrolyte and maintain a good interfacial property between the polymer electrolyte and electrodes. Polymer lithium batteries were assembled by using LiCoO₂ as cathode material and lithium foil as anode material. Scanning electron microscopy, alternating current impedance, linear sweep voltammetry and charge-discharge tests were used to study the properties of polymer membrane and polymer Li-ion batteries. The results show that the technics of preparing polymer electrolyte by directly evaporating solvent is simple. The polymer membrane has rich micro-porous structure on both sides and exhibits 280% uptake of electrolyte solution. The electrochemical stability window of this polymer electrolyte is about 5.5 V, and its ionic conductivity at room temperature reaches 0.151 S/m. The polymer lithium battery displays an initial discharge capacity of 138 mA·h/g and discharge plateau of about 3.9 V at 0.2 current rate. After 30 cycles, its loss of discharge capacity is only 2%. When the battery discharges at 0.5 current rate, the voltage plateau is still 3.7 V. The discharge capacities of 0.5 and 1.0 current rates are 96% and 93% of that of 0.1 current rate, respectively.