Poly(vinylpyridine-co-styrene) based in situ cross-linked gel polymer electrolyte for lithium-ion polymer batteries

Abstract: A gel polymer electrolyte (GPE) was successfully prepared by means of an in situ cross-linking reaction of poly(2-vinylpyridine-co-styrene) and oligo(ethylene oxide) with epoxide functional groups at 65°C without using a polymerization initiator. A stable gel polymer electrolyte could be obtained by adding only 1% of a polymer gelator. The ionic conductivity of the GPE containing 99wt% of liquid electrolyte was measured to be ca. 10−2 S/cm at the ambient temperature. The ionic conductivity of the resulting GPE was comparable to that of a pure liquid electrolyte. The electrochemical stability window of the prepared gel polymer electrolytes was measured to be 5.2V. The test cell carried a discharge capacity of 133.2mAh/g at 0.1C and showed good cycling performance with negligible capacity fading after the 200th cycle, maintaining 99.5% coulombic efficiency throughout 200 cycles. The resulting gel polymer electrolyte prepared by in situ thermal cross-linking without a polymerization initiator holds promise for application to on the high power lithium-ion polymer batteries. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]