Influencing ionic conductivity and mechanical properties of ionic liquid polymer electrolytes by designing the...

Polymeric single chloride-ion conductor networks based on acrylic imidazolium chloride ionic liquid monomers AACXImCYCl as reported previously are prepared. The chemical structure of the polymers is varied with respect to the acrylic substituents (alkyl spacer and alkyl substituent in the imidazolium ring). The networks are examined in detail with respect to the influence of the chemical structure on the resulting properties including thermal behavior, rheological behavior, swelling behavior, and ionic conductivity. The ionic conductivities increase (by two orders of magnitude from 10^-6 to 10^-4 S·cm^-1 with increasing temperature), while the complex viscosities of the polymer networks decrease simultaneously. After swelling in water for 1 week the ionic conductivity reaches values of 10^-2 S·cm^-1. A clear influence of the spacer and the crosslinker content on the glass transition temperature was shown for the first time in these investigations. With increasing crosslinker content, the T values and the viscosities of the networks increase. With increasing spacer length, the T values decrease, but the viscosities increase with increasing temperature. The results reveal that the materials represent promising electrolytes for batteries, as proven by successful charging/discharging of a p(TEMPO-MA)/zinc battery over 350 cycles.