Integrated manufacturing of REciclable multi-material COmposites for the TRANSport sector

Although structural battery composites (SBCs) have been intensively investigated in the past decades, they still face problems of low energy density and inferior out-of-plane compressive performance. In this work, the novel SBCs with fully enhanced energy storing and mechanical performance are demonstrated by encapsulation of the active materials with carbon fiber composite shell layers via a vacuum bagging process. To improve energy storing capacity, a freestanding film with high LiFePO4 (LFP) loading is firstly designed as the self-supporting cathode of SBC, and the SBC assembled can exhibit a remarkable energy density of ? 90 Wh kg?1, which is increased by 157 % over the previous record. Then, SBCs with carbon fiber composite stiffening beams (SBC-B) are designed to improve their loading performance. The as-developed SBC-B offers stable electrochemical performance even at a high out-of-plane compressive stress of 10 MPa, which is improved 233 % than that without the stiffening beams. Finally, a prototype of electric vehicle with SBC as the energy-storing-chassis is demonstrated to run smoothly under a high loading of 600 g. Overall, this design strategy provides a new path for developing structural battery composites with remarkable energy storage capabilities especially under high compressive loading for next-generation electric vehicles, etc.

» Author: Guang-He Dong, Yu-Qin Mao, Fang-Liang Guo, Yuan-Qing Li, Pei Huang, Shao-Yun Fu

» Reference: Composite Structures, Volume 306

» Publication Date: 15/02/2023

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