Composite polymer electrolyte with vertically aligned garnet scaffolds for quasi solid-state lithium batteries

Abstract

Structure design is of great importance for composite solid electrolytes to meet the high requirements for lithium batteries today. Herein, a novel composite polymer electrolyte with vertically aligned fast ion pathways has been constructed through the in-situ UV-induced polymerization of poly (butyl acrylate) (PBA) based gel polymer electrolyte inside the honeycomb-structure Li6.5La3Zr1.5Ta0.5012 (LLZTO) scaffolds by freeze casting. The addition of LLZTO enhances the anion adsorption through the Lewis-acid sites of the La ions and reduces the Li+ complexation by participating in the interaction of CO⋯Li+. Therefore, the interface of PBA and LLZTO scaffold serves as a continuous Li+ transport pathway and the resulting composite solid electrolyte exhibits a high ionic conductivity (5.098×10−4 S cm−1), near single-ion conducting characteristic (a transference number of 0.8) and high electrochemical stability window (5.15 V). Based on the above superior performance, the composite electrolyte promotes uniform distribution of lithium ion concentration and electrolyte potential. Thus, quasi-solid-state LiFePO4/Li cells exhibit excellent cycling performance (capacity retention of 91.7 % after 300 cycles at 0.5 C).