A PEO-based gel polymer electrolyte for lithium ion batteries

Abstract

A lithium-ion conducting gel polymer electrolyte (GPE) membrane containing PEO as a polymer host and liquid electrolyte has been prepared by a simple one-step procedure. The prepared electrolyte membrane exhibits a good ionic conductivity of 3.3 × 10⁻³ S cm⁻¹ and high lithium transference number of 0.76 at room temperature. Meanwhile, the gel polymer electrolyte membrane shows very good thermal stability. A Li/GPE/LiFeO₄ cell was fabricated to demonstrate the electrochemical performance of the GPE. The cell exhibits good cycling stability with a high capacity retention of 81% after 500 cycles and as good a rate performance as LiFeO₄ tested in liquid electrolyte.