Solid polymer electrolyte-coated carbon fibres for structural and novel micro batteries

We report a method to deposit a thin solid polymer electrolyte (SPE) coating around individual carbon fibres for the realization of novel battery designs. In this study an electrocoating method is used to coat methacrylate-based solid polymer electrolytes onto carbon fibres. By this approach a dense uniform, apparently pinhole-free, poly(methoxy polyethylene glycol (350) monomethacrylate) coating with an average coating thickness of 470 nm was deposited around carbon fibres. Li-triflate, used as supporting electrolyte remained in the coating after the electrocoating operation. The Li-ion content in the solid polymer coating was found to be sufficiently high for battery applications. A battery device was built employing the SPE coated carbon fibres as negative electrode demonstrating reversible specific capacity of 260 mA h/g at low currents (C/10), suggesting that these coated carbon fibres can be employed in future structural composite batteries. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.