ABSTRACT:To study compositional dependent conductivity of Li +-ions in lithium perchlorate/poly( ethylene oxide) (LiC104 /PEO) electrolytes, mobility of the Li +-ions and morphology of the electrolytes are investigated by examining the spin-lattice relaxation time (T 1 ) of 7 Li and by high-resolution solid-state 13 C NMR methods. It is shown that the amount of the mobile Li+ -ion estimated from the shorter 7 Li-T1 component is not directly compared with the reported conductivity. The high-resolution solid-state 13 C NMR spectra show that there exists five different CH2 carbons in the LiC104 /PEO electrolytes. The five peaks are assigned to ( 1) the crystalline phase of pure PEO, (2) the amorphous phase of PEO with the Li +-ions, and three complex phases of the following ratio of (3) PEO: Li + = 3: 1, (4) x: I (3 < x < 6), and (5) 6: 1. Furthermore, it is shown that the domain size of the PEO: Li + = 6: 1 phase in the LiC104 /PEO = 1/6 electrolyte is large and the mobility of the Li +-ions in the phase is so fast as to give a short 7 Li-T1 comparable to that in the amorphous phase. The former ions are confined in the PEO: Li + = 6: I phase and do not contribute to conductivity while the latter does. Therefore, care should be taken in correlating the amount of the mobile Li +-ions obtained from the 7 Li-T1 data to the Li +-ion conductivity.KEY The polymer electrolyte of poly( ethylene oxide) (PEO) and alkali metal salt exhibits high ion conductivity.1.2 For a LiC104 /PEO electrolyte, when a molar ratio of LiC10 4 to a PEO segment (constitutional repeating EO unit) is less than about 1/10, Li+ -ion conductivity at room temperature reaches to 10-6 S em-1 . 3 -6 Above the concentration of 1/10, the conductivity decreases linearly to the concentration. The observed composition dependence is summarized in Figure 1. ever, as will be shown afterward, ion conductivity depicted in Figure 1 could not directly be related to the amount of the mobile Li +-ions deduced from the 7 Li-T 1 data. This implies that mobility of Li +-ions is affected by the phase structures. It is thus important to clarify the relation between ion conductivity and the phase morphology.The low conductivity at higher Li + concentration has been attributed to the formation of a complex of Li + and PEO. For example, recently, Li et aC examined Li +-ion conductivity in the ternary-system of LiCl0 4 / PEO/poly(2-vinylpyridine) (P2VP). They found that the conductivity depends on the concentration of P2VP, which interferes the formation of PEO: Li + complexes. Apparently, ion conductivity of a LiC10 4 /PEO electrolyte is affected by the phase structure of the system. The PEO: Li + = 6: 1 and 3 : 1 complex phases were suggested for 1/6. 4 • 5 Here, the PEO: Li + = n : 1 means that n segments of PEO (n EO units) form a complex with one Li +-ion. In this work, to examine the structure of the complex phases, the morphology, and the relation between ion conductivity and the phase morphology, we applied solid-state 7 Li and 13 C NMR methods.So far, the 7 Li NMR sp...