Gel polymer electrolyte combined lignocellulose with sodium alginate in lithium-ion battery

The adoption of gel polymer electrolyte (GPE) is a solution to efficiently solve the serious security risk of lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). GPE based on lignocellulose (LC) and sodium alginate (SA) was prepared. When the proportion of SA reaches up to 20 wt.%, the obtained composite membrane has a liquid electrolyte uptake of 337 wt.% and a porosity of 58%, and its mechanical strength is over four times than that of pure LC-based membrane. In addition, the corresponding GPE with 20 wt.% SA (GLCSA-20) presents high lithium-ion transference number of 0.76, distinguished ion conductivity of 2.70 × 10 − 3 S cm − 1 , excellent discharge specific capacity (124 mAh cm − 1 at 1 C when 200th cycle of Li∥GLCSA-20∥LiFePO 4 ) and outstanding cyclic stability. These virtues support that the GLCSA-20 has great potential for applications in safe LIBs.