Organic/Inorganic Hybrid Block Copolymer Electrolytes with Nanoscale Ion-Conducting Channels for Lithium Ion Batteries

• DOI: 10.1021/ma301404q
• Publication Date: 2012-11-20T13:10:24Z
• Authors: Sung-Kon Kim; Dong-Gyun Kim; Aeri Lee; Hae-Sung Sohn; Jeong Jae Wie; Ngoc A. Nguyen; Michael E. Mackay; Jong-Chan Lee
• Keywords: 01 natural sciences; 0104 chemical sciences; 3. Good health

A series of organic/inorganic hybrid block and random copolymers were prepared by reversible addition–fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) polymerization using poly(ethylene glycol) methyl ether methacrylate (PEGMA) and 3-(3,5,7,9,11,13,15-heptaisobutylpentacyclo[9.5.1.13,9.15,15.17,13]octasiloxane-1-yl)propyl methacrylate (MA-POSS) as monomers in order to study the effect of polymer morphology and POSS content on the properties of polymer electrolytes. Flexible and dimensionally stable free-standing films were made from the hybrid block and random copolymers mixed with lithium bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl)imide (LiTFSI) when the contents of MA-POSS unit were larger than 31 and 16 mol %, respectively. The ionic conductivity of the solid-state block copolymer (PBP) electrolyte was found to be 1 order of magnitude higher than that of the random copolymer (PRP) electrolyte when they had similar MA-POSS content, although their glass transition temperature values of their ion-conducting segments were quite clos...