Hierarchical Alignment of Chitin Fiber as an Electrolyte Uptake Membrane for Li Metal based Oxygen battery

Abstract

Here, we introduce regenerated fibers of chitin (Chiber), the second most abundant biopolymer after cellulose, and propose its utility as a nonwoven fiber separator for lithium metal batteries (LMBs) that exhibits an excellent electrolyte-uptaking capability and Li-dendritemitigating performance. Chiber is produced by a centrifugal jet-spinning technique, which allows a simple and fast production of Chibers consisting of hierarchically aligned self-assembled chitin nanofibers. Following the scrutinization on the Chiber−Li-ion interaction via computational methods, we demonstrate the potential of Chiber as a nonwoven mat-type separator by monitoring it in Li−O2 and Na−O2 cells.