ABSTRACT:Ion conductive behavior of LiCI04 in poly(propylene oxide) (PPO) was studied. PPO solutions of LiCI04 had ionic conductivity of 10-4 -10- 6 It is generally recognized that low electrical conductivity of usual polymers at low electric fields is due to ionic impurities, absorbed moisture, and decomposition products in the polymers. If a large amount of carrier ions can be generated and the carriers can have high mobility in polymers, polymeric ion conductors will be obtained. Such conductors will have a wide range of applications 1 in such areas as solid-state batteries, 2 fuel cells, electrochemical displays, and chemical sensors. In order to design a polymeric ion conductor, it is important to investigate the mechanisms of carrier generation and carrier migration in the polymer. However, because of the extremely low conduction current in usual polymers, these mechanisms have not as yet been clarified. methylene oxide) 5 are in the liquid state at room temperature, and dissolve many kinds of inorganic salts up to a high concentration. Electrolyte solutions formed with such polymeric solvents are useful in order to investigate the ion conductive behavior in polymeric materials.The most popular ionic conductors are electrolyte solutions, in which low molecular weight compounds are used as solvents. However, some kinds of polymers dissolve inorganic salts to form electrolyte solutions. 3 -5 Relatively low molecular weight polyethers such as poly(ethylene oxide), 3 poly(propylene oxide) (PP0), 4 • 5 and poly(tetraWe found 6 tl1.1t PPO solutions of LiC10 4 have ionic conductivity of !0-4 -I0-6 Scm-1 at room temperature and that films of these solutions prepared by block copolymerization give a polymeric solid electrolyte. The work described in this paper is concerned with the effect of molecular weight on the ion conductive behavior of LiC10 4 in PPO.
EXPERIMENTAL
MaterialsFour PPO samples having different molecular weights were used for the present study. PPO 400 (mol. wt. = 420) and PPO 3000 (mol. wt. = 2880) were obtained from Asahi Denka Industry Co. Ltd., and PPO 1000 (mol. wt. = 1160) and PPO 2000 (mol. wt. = 2020) were purchased from Kishida 65