High Ion Conducting Polymer Nanocomposite Electrolytes Using Hybrid Nanofillers

Abstract

There is a growing shift from liquid electrolytes toward solid polymer electrolytes, in energy storage devices, due to the many advantages of the latter such as enhanced safety, flexibility, and manufacturability. The main issue with polymer electrolytes is their lower ionic conductivity compared to that of liquid electrolytes. Nanoscale fillers such as silica and alumina nanoparticles are known to enhance the ionic conductivity of polymer electrolytes. Although carbon nanotubes have been used as fillers for polymers in various applications, they have not yet been used in polymer electrolytes as they are conductive and can pose the risk of electrical shorting. In this study, we show that nanotubes can be packaged within insulating clay layers to form effective 3D nanofillers. We show that such hybrid nanofillers increase the lithium ion conductivity of PEO electrolyte by almost 2 orders of magnitude. Furthermore, significant improvement in mechanical properties were observed where only 5 wt % addition of the filler led to 160% increase in the tensile strength of the polymer. This new approach of embedding conducting-insulating hybrid nanofillers could lead to the development of a new generation of polymer nanocomposite electrolytes with high ion conductivity and improved mechanical properties.

High Ion‐Conducting Solid‐State Composite Electrolytes with Carbon Quantum Dot Nanofillers

“…When compared with the ionic conductivity of bare PEO SPEs, substantial enhancements are observed for PEO/CQDs‐Na NPE and PEO/CQDs‐Li NPE due to the homogeneous dispersion of CQDs within the PEO matrix. At ambient temperature, the highest ionic conductivities for PEO/CQDs‐Na NPE and PEO/CQDs‐Li NPE are 7.17 × 10 −5 and 1.39 × 10 −4 S cm −1 , respectively (Table S1, Supporting Information), and the values are also contrasted with other nanofiller doped PEO polymer electrolytes (Table S2, Supporting Information) 11, 18, 19. As for PEO/CQDs‐Na NPE, the optimal CQD content corresponding to the maximum conductivity value is 3 wt%, which is lower than that for PEO/CQDs‐Li NPE (5 wt%).…”

Preparation and characterization of novel thermoset polyimide and polyimide-peo doped with LiCF3SO3

“…They can be temporarily complexed or attached to the polymer chain (Li + can attach to oxygen atoms on PEO) during segmental motion of the polymer and then hop to the next site. The fraction of 'free' ions will indicate the effectiveness of various electrolyte components in increasing charge concentration and subsequent ion conduction [41]. Thus, the increasing ionic conductivity of PI-PEO-LiCF 3 SO 3 film suggested that, even a small amount of PEO added to PI-LiCF 3 SO 3 membrane, increases the free volume and decreases the T g which leads to increase molecular mobility.…”

Carbonate-linked poly(ethylene oxide) polymer electrolytes towards high performance solid state lithium batteries

“…To develop dry solid polymer electrolytes with high ionic conductivity and interfacial stability, many strategies, such as synthesizing PEO copolymers [11][12][13][14][15][16], tailoring blend polymers [17], preparing branched PEO polymers [18][19][20] or cross-linked PEO polymers [21][22][23] and compositing ceramic fillers [8,[24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32] have been extensively studied [33]. A self-doped solid block copolymer electrolyte was synthesized combining a single-ion poly(lithium methacrylate-co-oligoethylene glycol methacrylate) (P(MALi-co-OEGMA)) and a structuring polystyrene block (PS).…”