An effectively inhibiting lithium dendrite growth in-situ-polymerized gel polymer electrolyte

Abstract Polyacrylate polymer is a promising polymer matrix for gel polymer electrolyte (GPE) in lithium-ion batteries. Herein, in-situ polymerized poly(ethylene glycol phenyl etheracrylate) (PEGPEA) based GPE combined with 1 M LiPF6 in ethylene carbonate/dimethyl carbonate/ethyl methyl carbonate (EC/DMC/EMC, 1:1:1 in volume) solvents was introduced. The maximum recoverable strain of the in-situ polymerized PEGPEA-GPE was up to 99%. The outstanding interfacial compatibility between PEGPEA-GPE and the lithium electrode was also obtained. Surprisingly, lithium dendrite was effectively suppressed in charge-discharge cycling because of polymer-enhanced solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) and excellent contact interface. Furthermore, the PEGPEA-GPE exhibited wide electrochemical stability window up to 4.9 V versus Li + /Li, and achieved an ionic conductivity of 3.35 × 10 −3  S cm −1  at 25 °C. When used as electrolyte, the Li[Ni 0.5 Co 0.2 Mn 0.3 ]O 2 /PEGPEA-GPE/Li batteries showed high discharge capacity retention rate of 97.5% after 70 charge-discharge cycles and considerable discharge rate capability, i.e., 155 mAh g −1 0.2C, 142 mAh g −1 0.5C, 120 mAh g −1 1C, 60 mAh g −1 2C. These results demonstrate that this highly elastic in-situ polymerized PEGPEA-GPE is a potential electrolyte system for high-performance polymer electrolyte lithium-ion batteries and has excellent application prospects in wearable and flexible batteries.