Author(s): Reizabal, A. ; Gonçalves, R. ; Fidalgo-Marijuan, A. ; Costa, Carlos Miguel Silva ; Pérez, L. ; Vilas, J.-L. ; Lanceros-Méndez, S.
Date: 2020
Persistent ID: https://hdl.handle.net/1822/69480
Origin: RepositóriUM - Universidade do Minho
Subject(s): Silk fibroin; Pore size control; Separator membrane; Lithium-ion battery
The search of natural materials for their application in energy storage systems in general and batteries in particular is growing due to their promising properties and the need of environmental sustainability. Silk fibroin (SF) is one of those materials due to their mechanical and thermal properties, non-toxicity and biocompatibility. Further, SF exhibits excellent cycling performance as separator for lithium-ion battery applications. This work reports on SF membranes with different pore sizes (within the rages: 38–22, 106–38 and 250-106 μm) prepared for separators in lithium-ion batteries. The morphology, structure and thermal properties were evaluated. It is shown that the β-sheet conformation percentage increases with increasing pore size, which also leads to higher electrolyte uptake, reaching 350% for SF membranes with pore size of 250–106 μm. With respect to battery performance, a high discharge capacity (131.3 mAh g−1, for C/8) is obtained for this membrane
