Poly(ethylene oxide)-based composite polymer electrolytes embedding with ionic bond modified nanoparticles for all-solid-state lithium-ion battery.

Abstract Flexible composite polymer electrolytes (CPEs) are fabricated by reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) polymerization of poly(ethylene glycol) methacrylate (PEGMA) and poly(ethylene glycol) diacrylate (PEGDA), followed by physical doping with ionic bond modified nanoparticles (IBNs) based on nanoscale silica. In reference to PEGMA-PEGDA cross-linked framework prepared by ultraviolet light irradiation directly, RAFT polymerization endows the electrolyte membranes with excellent flexibility, and further increase in yield stress and tensile modulus achieved with IBNs adding in the system. CPEs obey Arrhenius law and its ionic conductivity is found to be maximum of 6.77 × 10−5 S cm−1 at 30 °C, but that of the electrolytes consisted of the same molar feeding ratio of PEGMA/PEGDA without IBNs blending is 3.76 × 10−5 S cm−1 at 30 °C, indicating that the loading of IBNs improves the ionic conductivity, due to the elevated chain mobility. Besides, the electrochemical stability of CPEs is promoted in comparison with the traditional linear poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) based electrolytes. Moreover, the electrolyte membrane exhibits good cycling performance with lithium iron phosphate and retained 94.3% of capacity after 40 charge-discharge cycles, demonstrating the great potential of this kind of CPEs prepared in this study as electrolyte materials for battery systems. Graphical abstract fx1 Highlights • Silica coated polyether with sulfo-amino ionic connection. • Remarkable ionic conductivity of polymer electrolytes at room temperature. • Excellent flexibility with good mechanical properties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]