A review on all-solid-state polymer electrolytes applicable in lithium ion batteries

In recent years, solid polymer electrolytes (SPEs) have received great attention due to wide variety of applications such as energy storage devices. Despite, favorable characteristics of SPEs, poor ionic conductivity has suppressed their applications. SPEs are basically consisted of a polymer host and a lithium salt. SPEs are commonly synthesized through film casting method. Polyethylene oxide (PEO) has been widely applied as a polymer host due to the ability to solve various salts and additives. So far, numerous attempts have been made to enhance the ionic conductivity of SPEs. Addition of various fillers and plasticizers, modification of the polymer structure, the increase of salt concentration and many more are of the common methods for the improvement of the ion conductivity. The previous researches have focused on the preparation of SPEs using the film casting method. So far, there has been little discussion regarding the electrospinning technique for the fabrication of SPEs. Compared with SPEs, nanofibrous electrolytes have shown greater ion conductivity due to their highly porous structures. In general, electrospinning can be considered as a high efficient, quick and easy method for the production of all-solid-state nanofibrous electrolytes which are applicable in lithium ion batteries.