Homogenously dispersed ultrasmall niobium(V) oxide nanoparticles enabling improved ionic conductivity and interfacial compatibility of composite polymer electrolyte

Abstract

Composite polymer electrolytes (CPEs) decorated with ceramic fillers have emerged as appealing structures that exhibit coalesced merits of both inorganic and polymer solid electrolytes, but are currently challenged by the particle agglomeration that weakens ionic conductivity and electrochemical performances. Herein, a facile solvothermal method is proposed to fabricate the ultrasmall niobium(V) oxide (Nb2O5) nanoparticle of average size being less than 3 nm, enabling the composite polymer electrolyte with homogenous dispersity (nano-CPE). Owning to the superior dispersity of ultrasmall Nb2O5 nanoparticles, the polymer chains can be effectively disordered to enhance the local segmental motion through the physical interruption. Moreover, strong Lewis acid-based interactions between Nb2O5 nanoparticles and lithium salts are formed, resulting in accelerating the dissociation of lithium salt and releasing more free charge carriers. Therefore, the 3D connected Li+ fast pathways along the amorphous region between the Nb2O5 nanoparticles and polymer chains are constructed, ensuring the improved ionic conductivity. In addition, the homogenous Li deposition can also be simultaneously achieved through the intimate interfacial contact, which can efficiently suppress the growth of lithium dendrite in the metal anode. The fabricated nano-CPE presents a high ionic conductivity of 6.6 × 10−5 S/cm at room temperature and wide anti-oxidative potential of 5.1 V. The lithium symmetric battery using nano-CPE delivers a decent lithium plating/stripping performance for 200 h at 0.5 mA/cm2. The solid-sate LiFePO4 battery achieves long stable cycling performances (151mAh/g and 140 mAh/g after 230 cycles at 0.5C and 1.0C, respectively). This work may offer a facile and efficient synthesized method of highly dispersed ultrasmall nanoparticles for advancing the CPE with improved ionic conductivity, interfacial contact and cell performances.