Carbon fibre based structural batteries combine energy storage and mechanical load transfer into a single material. Multifunctional materials as such are attractive alternatives to today's state-of-the-art monofunctional batteries, particularly in mobile applications where the battery pack constitutes parasitic weight that decreases range. Structural batteries take advantage of carbon fibres’ ability to store electrochemical energy by insertion of alkali-ions and their outstanding mechanical properties, making them an inherently multifunctional material. A key aspect to structural batteries is an electrolyte that can transfer mechanical load and ions between the electrodes. A solid PEG-based solid polymer electrolyte (SPE) has been synthesised for Li chemistries in previous work, utilising electrochemical grafting to produce thin homogeneous films covering individual carbon fibres [1].This method remains unexplored for Na based chemistries as an attractive, abundant and cheap alternative to Li. This paper demonstrates this single step, energy efficient electrochemical process to produce a chemisorbed, dense and homogeneous SPE around single carbon fibres for Na chemistries. Propylene glycol methyl ether acrylate is grafted and polymerised onto single fibres using sodium bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl)imide (NaTFSI) as supporting electrolyte. The synthesised SPE is characterised using various techniques and the electrochemical properties of the coated carbon fibre electrodes were investigated by cycling the electrodes in a battery setup. The results show a dense SPE that covers each individual fibre in a carbon fibre bundle and the electrodes cycle stably against Na metal with capacities that are on par with findings in previous work [2]. In a step towards realising single carbon fibre battery cells, this method holds the potential to produce fully solid state structural batteries, by using sustainable chemicals, that are scalable from micrometer dimensions and allow for novel battery design.[1] Leijonmarck, S., Carlson, T., Lindbergh, G., Asp, L.E., Maples, H. and Bismarck, A., 2013. Solid polymer electrolyte-coated carbon fibres for structural and novel micro batteries. Composites Science and Technology, 89, pp.149-157.[2] Harnden, R., Peuvot, K., Zenkert, D. and Lindbergh, G., 2018. Multifunctional performance of sodiated carbon fibers. Journal of The Electrochemical Society, 165(13), p.B616.
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