Abstract
A poly(vinylidene co-hexafluoropropylene) (PVDF-HFP) membrane is functionalized with polyaniline (PANI) and graphene oxide (GO) nanoparticles. The obtained PVDF-HFP polymer electrolyte membranes (PEMs) have been characterized and implemented in lithium-ion batteries. As a result, the PVDF-HFP/PANI membrane shows the highest ionic conductivity (IC) of 1.04 × 10-3 mS cm-1 compared to pristine PVDF-HFP and PVDF-HFP/PANI/GO ternary membrane; however, PANI addition decreases the tensile strength of the PVDF-HFP membrane from 4.2 MPa to 2.8 MPa. Therefore, GO is introduced to recover the reduced mechanical strength of the PVDF-HFP/PANI membrane. The obtained PVDF-HFP/PANI/GO ternary membrane shows a remarkable improvement in tensile strength of up to 8.8 MPa; however, slight reduction is observed in the ionic conductivity of 6.64 × 10-4 mS cm-1. Furthermore, the PVDF-HFP/PANI/GO ternary membrane exhibits outstanding thermal and mechanical stabilities, improved morphology, highest electrolyte uptake (367.5%) and an excellent porosity of around 89%. Moreover, the PVDF-HFP/PANI/GO ternary PEM has been successfully applied in a lithium-ion battery, which can retain over 95% capacity after 30 cycles. Therefore, the proposed PVDF-HFP/PANI/GO ternary membrane can be a promising candidate as a separator in future lithium-ion batteries.