High electrolyte uptake of MXene integrated membrane separators for Zn-ion batteries

Chutiwat Likitaporn; Manunya Okhawilai; Pornnapa Kasemsiri; Jiaqian Qin; Pranut Potiyaraj; Hiroshi Uyama

doi:10.1038/s41598-022-24578-8

High electrolyte uptake of MXene integrated membrane separators for Zn-ion batteries

Sci Rep. 2022 Nov 19;12(1):19915. doi: 10.1038/s41598-022-24578-8.

Authors

Chutiwat Likitaporn¹, Manunya Okhawilai^{2

3}, Pornnapa Kasemsiri⁴, Jiaqian Qin^{5

6}, Pranut Potiyaraj^{5

6

7}, Hiroshi Uyama⁸

Affiliations

¹ Nanoscience and Technology Interdisciplinary Program, Graduate School, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, 10330, Thailand.
² Metallurgy and Materials Science Research Institute, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, 10330, Thailand. Manunya.o@chula.ac.th.
³ Center of Excellence in Responsive Wearable Materials, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, 10330, Thailand. Manunya.o@chula.ac.th.
⁴ Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Sustainable Infrastructure Research and Development Center, Khon Kaen University, Khon Kaen, 40002, Thailand.
⁵ Metallurgy and Materials Science Research Institute, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, 10330, Thailand.
⁶ Center of Excellence in Responsive Wearable Materials, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, 10330, Thailand.
⁷ Department of Materials Science, Faculty of Science, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, 10330, Thailand.
⁸ Department of Applied Chemistry, Graduate School of Engineering, Osaka University, Osaka, 565-0871, Japan.

Abstract

The recent development of separators with high flexibility, high electrolyte uptake, and ionic conductivity for batteries have gained considerable attention. However, studies on composite separators with the aforementioned properties for aqueous electrolytes in Zn-ion batteries are limited. In this research, a polyacrylonitrile (PAN)/bio-based polyurethane (PU)/Ti₃C₂T_x MXene composite membrane was fabricated using an electrospinning technique. Ti₃C₂ MXene was embedded in fibers and formed a spindle-like structure. With Ti₃C₂T_x MXene, the electrolyte uptake and ionic conductivity reached the superior values of 2214% and 3.35 × 10^-3 S cm^-1, respectively. The composite membrane presented an excellent charge-discharge stability when assembled in a Zn//Zn symmetrical battery. Moreover, the developed separator exhibited a high flexibility and no dimensional and structural changes after heat treatment, which resulted in the high-performance separator for the Zn-ion battery. Overall, the PAN/bio-based PU/Ti₃C₂T_x MXene composite membrane can be potentially used as a high-performance separator for Zn-ion batteries.

Abstract

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