Enhanced performance of solid-state Li–O_2 battery using a novel integrated architecture of gel polymer electrolyte and nanoarray cathode

摘要

The present work proposes a novel strategy to fabricate an integrated architecture of gel polymer electrolyte(GPE)–nanoarray cathode for lithium–O_2 batteries(LOBs). As a proof-of-concept experiment, the photo-initiated in situ polymerization of GPE was carried out via incorporating the precursor solution in advance into a selfstanding binder-free oxygen electrode of Co_3O_4 nanosheets array grown on carbon cloth(Co_3O_4@CC), forming an integrated GPE–Co_3O_4@CC architecture. The performance of the solid-state LOBs using the GPE–Co_3O_4@CC assembly is greatly enhanced compared to the counterparts with a traditional cell structure, in which GPE was sandwiched by a lithium metal and a cathode. The enhanced performance is ascribed to the combination of the in situ polymerization of GPE and the versatile structure of nanoarray electrode, which results in abundant interfacial contacts between GPE and electrode. This work presents an alternative way to develop high-performance solid-state LOBs by combining the advantages of both gel polymer electrolytes and nanoarray electrodes.