Abstract:
The demand for the sustainable energy sources has increased due to the environmental issues,
durability and cost. Lithium ion rechargeable batteries (LiBs) are widely known as a renewable
energy source. LiBs can be converted to effective sustainable energy sources when they are
modified to acquire the criterias of sustainable energy sources other than rechargeability. In the
present, there is an inclination to develop all-solid state and solid-like electrolytes for LiBs due
to the environmental and safety issues resulted by liquid electrolytes. In this work, an experiment
was carried out to design a lithium ion battery using a solid-like electrolyte based on cellulosic
biomass. Cellulosic biomass is very abundant, low cost and eco-friendly. Cellulose is a crucial
extractable material of cellulosic biomass and carboxymethyl cellulose can be synthesized from
cellulose. In here, one component of the electrolyte synthesized is lithium
dichlorocarboxymethyl cellulose (LiCMC) using cellulose, LiOH and trichloroacetic acid.
Tricholoacetic acid can be extracted from disinfected byproducts in water. LiCMC has various
advantages over typical sodium carboxymethyl cellulose. LiCMC has additional chlorine atoms
and lithium ions which directly promote the segmental motion diffusion of lithium ions. The
prepared LiCMC was crosslinked with β-cyclodextrin (BCD) using citric acid. In here, BCD is
very efficient because it is environmentally friendly and its cavities enhance the lithium ion
conduction. Another component in this electrolyte is LiCMC grafted mesoporous silica (MS).
The cavities of MS enhance the lithium ion conductivity and the robustness of MS improves the
durability of the battery. In the preparation of the electrolyte, citric acid cross linked LiCMCBCD
and LiCMC grafted MS were incorporated together. The resulted hydrogel was dipped in
LiCl aqueous solution and then it was used as the electrolyte. Graphite/graphene oxide (GO)
composite was used as the anode and Cobalt oxide-GO hydrogel was used as the cathode of the
prepared cell. The performance of the assembled cell was analyzed using charge-discharge
curves. The assembled cell showed an initial current density of 1.5 mA cm-2 and maximum
current density of 4.5 mA cm-2 in charging and initial current density of 0.90 mA cm-2 and
minimum current density of 0.20 mA cm-2 in discharging. The synthesized materials mentioned
in above were analyzed using FTIR-ATR data. The eco-friendliness, cost effectiveness of the
materials chosen in cell preparation and the desirable cell performance induce the viability to
develop LiBs as sustainable energy sources.
