High ionic conductive PVDF-based fibrous electrolytes

The high ionic conductive polymer electrolytes were prepared based on poly(vinylidenefluoride) (PVDF) fibers modified via preirradiation grafting poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA). In these polymer electrolytes, the PVDF fibers served as the supporting phase providing dimensional stability, and PMMA acted as the gel phase helping for the trapping liquid electrolyte and substituting the nonconductive PVDF phase to provide contact with electrodes well thus increasing conductive area. The modified PVDF fibrous membranes were used as a polymer electrolyte in lithium ion battery after they were activated by uptaking 1 M LiPF6/ethylene carbonate–dimethyl carbonate (1:1 vol) liquid electrolyte, which showed a much higher room-temperature ionic conductivity than the pristine PVDF fibrous membrane. The LiCoO2-mesocarbon microbead coin cells containing the dual-phase fibrous membrane (degree of graft, 111.8%) demonstrated excellent rate performance, and the cell still retained about 86% of discharge capacity at 4C rate, as compared to that at 0.1C rate. The prototype cell showed good cycle performance.