Flexible, Mechanically Robust, Solid-State Electrolyte Membrane with Conducting Oxide-Enhanced 3D Nanofiber Networks for Lithium Batteries
Mengmeng Zhang, Peng Pan, Zhongling Cheng, Jieting Mao, Liyuan Jiang, Changke Ni, Soyeon Park, Kaiyue Deng, Yi Hu, Kun Fu
Abstract
(LLZO) garnet-type oxide conductor, has proved to be a promising strategy to form continuous Li ion transfer paths in a polymer-based composite. However, the 3D network produced by brittle ceramic conductor nanofibers fails to provide sufficient mechanical adaptability. In this manuscript, we reported a new 3D ion-conducting network, which is synthesized from highly loaded LLZO nanoparticles reinforced conducting polymer nanofibers, by creating a lightweight continuous and interconnected LLZO-enhanced 3D network to outperform conducting heavy and brittle ceramic nanofibers to offer a new design principle of composite electrolyte membrane featuring all-round properties in mechanical robustness, structural flexibility, high ionic conductivity, lightweight, and high surface area. This composite-nanofiber design overcomes the issues of using ceramic-only nanoparticles, nanowires, or nanofibers in polymer composite electrolyte, and our work can be considered as a new generation of composite electrolyte membrane in composite electrolyte development.