Solid and gel electrolytes offer significant advantages for cycle stability and longevity in energy storage technologies. These advantages come with trade-offs such as reduced conductivity and ion mobility, which can impact power density in storage devices even at the nanoscale. Here we propose experiments aimed at exploring the ion transport properties of a hybrid electrolyte system of liquid and gel electrolytes with meso and nanoscale components. We focus on single pore systems featuring LiClO-propylene carbonate and LiClO-PMMA gel, which are model electrolytes for energy storage devices. We identified conditions at which the systems considered featured rectifying current-voltage curves, indicating a preferential direction of ion transport. The presented ion current rectification suggests different mechanisms arising from the unique hybrid system: (i) PMMA structure imposing selectivity in fully immersed systems and (ii) ionic selectivity linked to ion sourcing from media of different ionic mobility. These mechanisms were observed to interplay with ion transport properties linked to nanopore structure i.e. cylindrical and conical.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.