A novel microporous polymer electrolyte (MPE) comprising blends of poly(vinylidene fluoride-cohexafluoropropylene) [P(VdF-HFP)] and polyethylene oxide (PEO) was prepared by phase inversion technique. It was observed that addition of PEO improved the pore configuration, such as pore size, pore connectivity and porosity of P(VdF-HFP) based membranes. The room temperature ionic conductivity was significantly enhanced. The highest porosity of about 65% and ionic conductivity of about 7 × 10 -4 S cm -1 was obtained when the weight ratio of PEO was 40%. The liquid electrolyte uptake was found to increase with increase in porosity and pore size. However, at higher weight ratio of PEO (> 40%) porosity, pore size and ionic conductivity was decreased. This descending trend with further increase of PEO weight ratio was attributed to conglomeration effect of PEO at the pores.
In the present work, we report a novel nanocomposite gel electrolytes based on intercalation of hyperbranched polyurethane (HBPU) into organically modified montmorillonite for application in Li-ion batteries. The nanocomposites have been prepared by solution intercalation technique with varying clay loading. The formation of partially exfoliated nanocomposites has been confirmed by X-ray diffraction. Nanocomposites were soaked with 1 M LiCO 4 in 1:1 (v/v) solution of propylene carbonate and diethyl carbonate to get the required gel electrolytes. AC impedance analysis shows that ionic conductivity increases with the increase of clay loading and attains the highest value of 8.3× 10 −3 S/cm for 5 wt.% clay concentration. Surface morphology of the nanocomposite electrolytes has been examined by SEM analysis. Improvement of electrochemical properties, viz., electrochemical potential window and interfacial stability, is also observed in the clay-loaded HBPU samples.
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