A Review of Structural Batteries with Carbon Fibers

Abstract

Carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) is one of the composite materials, which has a unique property that is lightweight but strong. The CFRPs are widely used in various industries where their unique characteristics are required. In particular, electric and unmanned aerial vehicles critically need lightweight parts and bodies with sufficient mechanical strengths. Vehicles using the battery as a power source should simultaneously meet two requirements that the battery has to be safely protected. The vehicle should be light of increasing the mileage. The CFRP has considered as the one that satisfies the requirements and is widely used as battery housing and other vehicle parts. On the other hand, in the battery area, carbon fibers are intensively tested as battery components such as electrodes and/or current collectors. Furthermore, using carbon fibers as both structure reinforcements and battery components to build a structural battery is intensively investigated in Sweden and the USA. This mini-review encompasses recent research trends that cover the classification of structural batteries in terms of functionality of carbon fibers and issues and efforts in the battery and discusses the prospect of structural batteries.