Cheap glass fiber mats as a matrix of gel polymer electrolytes for lithium ion batteries

Lithium ion batteries (LIBs) are going to play more important roles in electric vehicles and smart grids. The safety of the current LIBs of large capacity has been remaining a challenge due to the existence of large amounts of organic liquid electrolytes. Gel polymer electrolytes (GPEs) have been tried to replace the organic electrolyte to improve their safety. However, the application of GPEs is handicapped by their poor mechanical strength and high cost. Here, we report an economic gel-type composite membrane with high safety and good mechanical strength based on glass fiber mats, which are separator for lead-acid batteries. The gelled membrane exhibits high ionic conductivity (1.13 mS cm(-1)), high Li+ ion transference number (0.56) and wide electrochemical window. Its electrochemical performance is evaluated by LiFePO4 cathode with good cycling. The results show this gel-type composite membrane has great attraction to the large-capacity LIBs requiring high safety with low cost.