Planar Fully Stretchable Lithium-Ion Batteries Based on a Lamellar Conductive Elastomer

ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2020 Dec 2;12(48):53774-53780. doi: 10.1021/acsami.0c15305. Epub 2020 Nov 13.

Abstract

Stretchable lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) have attracted great attention as a promising power source in the emerging field of wearable electronics. Despite the recent advances in stretchable electrodes, separators, and sealing materials, building stretchable full batteries remains a big challenge. Herein, a simple strategy to prepare stretchable electrodes and separators at the full battery scale is reported. Then, electrostatic spraying is used to make the anode and cathode on an elastic current collector. Finally, a polyvinylidene fluoride/thermoplastic polyurethane nanofiber separator is hot-sandwiched between the cathode and anode. The fabricated battery shows stable electrochemical performance during repeatable release-stretch cycles. In particular, a stable capacity of 6 mA•h/cm2 at the current rate of 0.5 C can be achieved for the fully stretchable LIB. More importantly, over 70% of the initial capacity can be maintained after 100 cycles with ∼150% stretch.

Keywords: areal specific capacity; fully stretchable; high capacity; lithium-ion batteries; stability.