Fiber metal laminated structural batteries with multifunctional solid polymer electrolytes

A structural lithium ion battery is a material that can carry load and simultaneously be used to store electrical energy. We propose for the first time the fabrication of structural batteries based on modified fiber metal laminates with integrated energy storage function. The metal sheets act as both an impact resisting layer and current collectors. With the successful fabrication of solid polymer electrolyte membrane of high ionic conductivity, metal sheets supported solid state battery core can be integrated with fiber reinforced polymer composites (FRP) by layer stacking and subsequent co-curing to produce lightweight fiber metal laminated structural battery (FMLSB), which has outstanding impact resistance and can still operate a LED when subjected to 30 J impact energy. Further analysis indicates the underlying mechanism lies in low energy adsorption for FRP incorporated with metal sheets supported solid state battery core, which only brings about divergent in-plane cracks to FMLSB, in contrast to through-thickness penetration of FRP. To prove the concept of the as-fabricated FMLSB in electric vehicle industry, we successfully fabricated an 11 mAh FMLSB-type chassis which can be self-powered for over 20 min. This study shows that fiber metal laminates combined with solid state battery represents a promising path to mechanically strong structural batteries.