Controlled ionic conductivity via tapered block polymer electrolytes
Date
2015-01-23
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Royal Society of Chemistry
Abstract
We present the design of novel solid electrolytes using tapered block polymers (TBPs). In this work, we
synthesize a series of TBPs via atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) consisting of rigid polystyrene
and ion-conducting poly(oligo-oxyethylene methacrylate) segments and explore the role of tapered
interfaces on ion transport. Previous studies on TBPs have shown that manipulating the taper
composition in block polymers can reduce the unfavorable polymer–polymer interactions between
blocks, enabling the design for highly-processable (lower order–disorder transition temperature)
polymer electrolytes. Herein, we demonstrate that the taper profile and taper volume fraction
significantly impact the glass transition temperatures (Tgs) in block polymer electrolytes, thus affecting
the ionic conductivity. Additionally, we find that the normal-tapered materials with z60 vol% tapering
exhibit remarkable improvements in ionic conductivity (increase z190% at 20 C and increase z90% at
80 C) in comparison to their non-tapered counterparts. Overall, our TBPs, with controllable interfacial
interactions, present an exciting opportunity for the fabrication of cost-effective, highly-efficient, and
stable energy storage membranes.
Description
Publisher's PDF.
Keywords
Citation
Kuan, Wei-Fan, et al. "Controlled ionic conductivity via tapered block polymer electrolytes." RSC Advances 5.17 (2015): 12597-12604.