Preparation and multifunctional performance of carbon fiber-reinforced plastic composites for laminated structural batteries

This research focuses on the simultaneous maintenance of mechanical and electrochemical properties of laminated structural batteries (LSBs), using co-continuous structural electrolytes and carbon fiber-reinforced plastic (CFRP) composites. A comparison is made between the electrochemical performance of LSB encapsulated by glass fabric composites and those directly integrated into coin cells. The electrochemical properties of LSB with different lay-up configurations are evaluated using charge/discharge cycling, and tensile/bending tests were carried out to evaluate their mechanical properties. The effect of lay-up configurations on the multifunctional performance of LSB is also investigated. The results show that the self-designed encapsulating method improves the load-carrying capacity of batteries while sacrificing some electrochemical properties. The multifunctional performances of LSB having a CFRP composite anode with [0](2) lay-up is the best among the four structures with different lay-up configurations. Although further research is required to improve the electrochemical properties of LSB, the proposal and verification of this new encapsulating method are a significant contribution in the development of LSB.