An amorphous poly(vinylidene fluoride-co-hexafluoropropylene) based gel polymer electrolyte for magnesium ion battery

Abstract Magnesium ion batteries (MIBs) can be an alternative of lithium-ion batteries as they have a higher volumetric capacity, no dendrites formation and Mg is one of the most abundant elements in the earth crust. However, MIBs are at a very early stage of research due to a lack of high ionic conductivity and high voltage stable electrolytes. Herein, an attempt has been made to prepare gel polymer electrolyte (GPE) using microporous poly (vinylidene fluoride-co-hexafluoropropylene) (PVDF-co-HFP) copolymer for MIBs. The PVDF-co-HFP membrane is used as a polymer host prepared by electrospinning technique, which is one of the most efficient techniques to prepare nonwoven porous mat. The electrospun membrane is saturated in an organic liquid electrolyte of 0.3 M magnesium perchlorate (Mg(ClO4)2) dissolved in propylene carbonate (PC) to form GPE. The physical and electrochemical characterizations are carried out by various techniques to investigate the performance of GPE. Furthermore, the effect of the crystalline phase and surface structure of electrospun PVDF-co-HFP membranes are principally reviewed for the MIB electrolyte application. The ionic conductivity and electrochemical stability of PVDF-co-HFP copolymer electrolyte membranes are found to be 1.62 mS cm−1 and 5.5 V, respectively.