Preparation of rechargeable lithium batteries with poly(methyl methacrylate) based gel polymer electrolyte by in situ γ-ray irradiation-induced polymerization

An admixture of commercial liquid electrolyte (LB302, 1 M solution of LiPF6 in 1:1 EC/DEC) and methyl methacrylate (MMA) was enclosed in CR2032 cells. The assembled cells were then gamma-ray-irradiated using configurations of half cells and full cells. Through this in situ irradiation polymerization process, we obtained rechargeable lithium ion cells with poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) based gel polymer electrolytes (GPE). Galvanostatic cycling, AC impedance spectroscopy, and cyclic voltammetry were employed to investigate the electrochemical properties of the cells and the gel polymer electrolyte. This PMMA-based gel polymer electrolyte was found to exhibit a high ionic conductivity (at least 10(-3) S cm(-1)) at room temperature. Due to a significant increase in the charge transfer resistance between the GPE and the cathode, the cell impedance of a PMMA-based lithium ion cell is greater than that of a liquid-electrolyte-based cell. The discharge capacity of a LiNi0.8Co0.2O2/GPE/graphite is approximately 145 mAh g(-1) for the first cycle and decreases to 123 mAh g(-1) after 20 cycles. In addition, a large initial cell impedance (LICI) was observed in the irradiated positive half cell. In this paper, we propose a possible mechanism related to the detachment of the PMMA layer from the lithium electrode. This detachment of the PMMA layer from the lithium electrode has not been explicitly discussed previously.