Systematic Electrochemical Characterizations of Low Molecular Weight Gelator-Based Quasi-Solid Electrolytes

Abstract

An electrolyte is one of the essential components in diverse electrochemical devices including lithium secondary batteries and dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). Traditional liquid electrolytes having a high ion conductivity suffer from a problem of lowering the durability of the electrochemical devices because they have high flowability and volatility. Therefore, to improve the reliability of the electrochemical devices, it is preferable to replace the liquid electrolyte with a quasi-solid electrolyte. However, quasi-solid electrolytes are usually difficult to inject the devices and have a lower ion conductivity due to a higher viscosity than liquid electrolyte. In this study, we have developed a quasi-solid electrolyte which is based on a low molecular weight gelator (LMWG) with high conductivity and stability through proper physical crosslinking. In addition, the combination of various polymer materials including special functional groups with LMWG has been investigated for the optimization of the electrolyte performances. Especially, the prepared quasi-solid electrolytes have been systematically analyzed by various electrochemical methods and applied to both lithium battery and DSSC for evaluating their performances. The detailed results will be presented and discussed at the conference. This work was supported by a grant (No.2017000140002/ RE201702218) from the Environmental Industry Advancement Technology Development Project of Korea Environmental Industry & Technology funded by Korea Ministry of Environment.