Development of Composite Polymer Electrolyte with Enhanced Li-ion Conductivity by Using GO-Ce02 Nanomaterials as Filler in PVDF-HFP

Abstract

This study deals with the fabrication and characterization of nanocomposite polymer electrolytes for their potential applications in Li-ion batteries. The polymer-based ceria (GO-Ce02) nanofiller into the polymer matrix (PVDF-HFP), with lithium perchlorate (LiCl04) as a source of Li-ions and succinonitrile (SN) as plasticizer utilizing the solution casting technique.The X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD) was employed to analyze the structural changes in the polymer matrix and structural elucidation of the developed nanocomposite polymer electrolytes. FTlR analysis elucidate the structural changes and complexation of polymer chain with metal-ion. The decrease in crystallinity of the polymer matrix with the addition of salt, plasticizer, and further with GO-Ce02 nanosheets was confirmed by the XRD and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) results. The DC conductivity of PVDF-HFP/SN/LiCl04 solid polymer electrolytes increased gradually with the addition of SN with a maximum ion conductivity of 31.1 x 10- 5 Scm-1 is attained with 30 wt.% SN content. The addition of GO-Ce02 nanofiller further increased the conductivity of the fabricated nanocomposite polymer electrolyte films. The maximum ionic conductivity as measured by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (ElS) is found to be 2.84 x 10-4 Scm 1 for PVDF-HFP/LiCl04/30%SNIl.0 wt.% GO-Ce02. The Li-ion transference number increased to 0.95, indicating the predominance of the ionic mode of conduction. The dielectric and modulus analysis revealed a faster relaxation with increasing the nanofiller content up to 1.0 wt.% that reinforces the ion conductivity trend with increasing the filler content up to 1.0 wt.% for the developed nanocomposite polymer electrolyte films.