Acta Phys. -Chim. Sin. ›› 2011, Vol. 27 ›› Issue (07): 1689-1694.doi: 10.3866/PKU.WHXB20110712

• ELECTROCHEMISTRY AND NEW ENERGY • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Performance Improvement of Polyethylene-Supported PAMS Electrolyte Using Urea as Foaming Agent

CHEN Lang1, RAO Mu-Min1, LI Wei-Shan1,2,3, XU Meng-Qing1,2,3, LIAO You-Hao1, TAN Chun-Lin1,2,3, YI Jin1   

  1. 1. School of Chemistry and Environment, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510006, P. R. China;
    2. Key Laboratory of Electrochemical Technology on Energy Storage and Power Generation of Guangdong Higher Education Institutes, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510006, P. R. China;
    3. Engineering Research Center of Materials and Technology for Electrochemical Energy Storage (MOE), South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510006, P. R. China
  • Received:2011-01-18 Revised:2011-05-03 Published:2011-06-28
  • Contact: LI Wei-Shan E-mail:liwsh@scnu.edu.cn
  • Supported by:

    The project was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (20873046) and Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province, China (10351063101000001).

Abstract:

Poly(acrylonitrile-methyl methacrylate-styrene) (PAMS) was synthesized by emulsion polymerization and a polyethylene (PE)-supported membrane was prepared using urea as foaming agent (PE-PAMS-U). The structure and performance of the PAMS copolymer, PE-PAMS-U membrane and corresponding gel polymer electrolyte (GPE) were characterized by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), thermogravimetry (TG), linear sweep voltammetry (LSV), electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and by a charge/discharge test. We found that the performance of the PE-PAMS-U based GPE could be improved when using urea as a foaming agent. With the use of urea the pore size of the membrane becomes uniform, the ionic conductivity of the GPE improves from 1.1×10-3 to 2.15×10-3 S·cm-1 at room temperature and the interfacial resistance between the GPE and lithium is reduced from 480 to 250 Ω·cm2. The GPE is stable up to 5.0 V (vs Li/Li+) at room temperature and the battery made using the Li/PE-supported GPE/LiCoO2 shows a good rate and good cycle performance.

Key words: Lithium ion battery, Gel polymer electrolyte, Poly((acrylonitrile-methyl methacrylate-styrene), Urea, Foaming agent