Novel electrospun PAN–PVC composite fibrous membranes as polymer electrolytes for polymer lithium-ion batteries

Abstract

Composite fibrous membranes based on poly(acrylonitrile)(PAN)-poly(vinyl chloride)(PVC) have been prepared by electrospinning. The fibrous membranes are made up of fibers of 850- to 1,300-nm diameters. These fibers are stacked in layers to produce a fully interconnected pore structure. Polymer electrolytes were prepared by immersing the fibrous membranes in 1 M LiClO4-PC solution for 60 min. The condition of pure PAN polymer electrolytes is jelly, which has poor mechanical performance and cannot be used. But when PVC with a good mechanical stiffener was added to PAN, the condition of composite PAN–PVC polymer electrolytes becomes free-standing. In addition, the optimum electrochemical properties have been observed for the polymer electrolyte based on PAN–PVC (8:2, w/w) to show ionic conductivity of 1.05 × 10−3 S cm−1 at 25 °C, anodic stability up to 4.9 V versus Li/Li+, and a good compatibility with lithium metal resulting in low interfacial resistance. The promising results showed that fibrous PEs based on PAN–PVC (8:2, w/w) have good mechanical stability and electrochemical properties. This shows a great potential application in polymer lithium-ion batteries.