Polymer electrolytes integrated with ionic liquids for future electrochemical devices

Abstract

The global energy crisis and an increase in environmental pollution in the recent years have drawn the attention of the scientific community towards the development of efficient electrochemical devices. Polymers containing charged species have the potential to serve as electrolytes in next-generation devices and achieving high ion transport properties in these electrolytes is the key to improving their efficiency. In this article, we explore ways to improve the ion transport properties of solid polymer electrolytes by focusing on the use of ionic liquids (ILs). The application of IL-incorporated polymer electrolytes in lithium batteries, high temperature fuel cells, and electro-active actuators is summarized. For each system, the current level of understanding of the diverse factors affecting the transport properties of polymer electrolytes integrated with ILs is presented, in addition to the challenges encountered and strategies toward obtaining significantly improved device performances. The creation of self-assembled morphologies in IL-containing polymer electrolytes by the use of block copolymers is particularly highlighted as a novel prospective technique geared towards obtaining next-generation electrochemical devices with enhanced performances.

Li+ Ion Transport in Polymer Electrolytes Based on a Glyme-Li Salt Solvate Ionic Liquid

“…The class of PEs obtained by this method are termed "polymer-in-salt" electrolytes [10], and were independently reported by Angell [11] and one of the authors of this paper [12] in 1993 for the first time. We proposed the use of polymer electrolytes consisting of polymers and ionic liquids (ILs), which are molten salts with melting points lower than 100 C [13][14][15]. The incorporated ILs serve not only as non-flammable and nonvolatile plasticizers, but also as ionic carriers.…”

Gel Polymer Electrolytes for Electrochemical Energy Storage

“…However, the reported solid polymer electrolytes mostly deliver low ionic conductivities (10 −8 −10 −5 S cm −1 ) and poor interfaces with electrodes, resulting in deteriorated cycle performance. [1][2][3][4] The inferior mechanical property has also limited their developments. To this end, combined the advantages of both the liquid and solid electrolytes, gel polymer electrolytes (GPEs) have attracted increasing attentions as they can function as not only electrolytes but also separators.…”

Molecular Volume Effects on the Dynamics of Polymerized Ionic Liquids and their Monomers

“…Ionic liquids (ILs), composed entirely of large cations and anions with weak interactions, have received enormous interest in various research fields such as catalysis [1][2][3], electrochemistry [4][5][6][7][8] and energy [9,10]. The attraction of ILs is due to their unique physical properties (high thermal and chemical stability, negligible vapor pressure, broad electrochemical window and high ionic conductivity) [1,4,5,[11][12][13][14][15][16].…”