Strength of thin solid polymer electrolyte coatings and the coated carbon fibres

Paper in proceeding, 2015

As a route to increase the efficiency of electric vehicles, weight reductions through composite building materials are constantly being introduced. To further aid this effort focus has been put on structural batteries, where the composite is multifunctional serving both as energy storing as well as load bearing unit. In an attempt to reduce the high ionic resistances solid polymer electrolytes introduces, carbon fibres have been individually coated with polymeric layers ranging from <500 nm to >3 μm in thickness. This study investigates the feasibility of using such coatings in structural applications with respect to mechanical load cycling. The coated fibres were subjected to cyclic load up to approximately 1 % strain for up to 70,000 cycles. The polymer coatings were found not to be visibly affected by the prolonged mechanical fatigue. No cracks were observed in the coatings which makes the coating technique promising for future structural battery applications.