Quasi-Solid-State Polymer Electrolyte Based on Electrospun Polyacrylonitrile/Polysilsesquioxane Composite Nanofiber Membrane for High-Performance Lithium Batteries

Abstract

Considering the safety problem that is caused by liquid electrolytes and Li dendrites for lithium batteries, a new quasi-solid-state polymer electrolyte technology is presented in this work. A layer of 1,4-phenylene bridged polysilsesquioxane (PSiO) is synthesized by a sol-gel way and coated on the electrospun polyacrylonitrile (PAN) nanofiber to prepare a PAN@PSiO nanofiber composite membrane, which is then used as a quasi-solid-state electrolyte scaffold as well as separator for lithium batteries (LBs). This composite membrane, consisting of the three-dimensional network architecture of the PAN nanofiber matrix and a mesoporous PSiO coating layer, exhibited a high electrolyte intake level (297 wt%) and excellent mechanical properties. The electrochemical analysis results indicate that the ionic conductivity of the PAN@PSiO-based quasi-solid-state electrolyte membrane is 1.58 × 10−3 S cm−1 at room temperature and the electrochemical stability window reaches 4.8 V. The optimization of the electrode and the composite membrane interface leads the LiFePO4|PAN@PSiO|Li full cell to show superior cycling (capacity of 137.6 mAh g−1 at 0.2 C after 160 cycles) and excellent rate performances.

Fabrication of Composite Gel Electrolyte and F-Doping Carbon/Silica Anode from Electro-Spun P(VDF-HFP)/Silica Composite Nanofiber Film for Advanced Lithium-Ion Batteries

“…Electro-spun P(VDF-HFP) nanofiber film was synthesized according to previous work [ 35 ]: P(VDF-HFP) particles (20 wt%) were dissolved in DMF/acetone solution ( v / v = 7:3) and stirred at 50 °C for 3 h to obtain uniform spinning solution. P(VDF-HFP) nanofibers were produced by electrospinning.…”

Recent Development in Novel Lithium-Sulfur Nanofiber Separators: A Review of the Latest Fabrication and Performance Optimizations

“…One of the most commonly electrospun polymers for LSB separators is polyacrylonitrile (PAN) because it is easy to process, resistant to oxidation, and has high thermal resilience [ 42 , 43 , 44 ]. PAN is also a common precursor for CNFs [ 45 ], which are examined in more detail in Section 3 .…”

Recent advances in modified commercial separators for lithium–sulfur batteries

“…89 Glass ber-based separators have recently gained popularity for improving LSB performance but are not as widely used as polyolen-based separators. [90][91][92][93][94] Various polymer nanober separators like polyacrylonitrile (PAN) nanober [95][96][97] and cellulose nanober 98 separators have also been developed for LSBs, but these are still in their development stage and are not readily available for commercialization.…”