Session: Advances in Materials Synthesis & Characterization of Li-ion, Na-ion & Multi-Valent Batteries:

In the pursuit of new commercial lithium ion battery (LIB) technologies that are safe, nonflammable, and highly conductive, solid-state electrolytes (SSE) are promising candidates for these critical innovations. To achieve SSEs with electrochemical and physical desirable properties such as ease of manufacturing, good adherence to electrodes, and high ionic conductivities, continued efforts are devoted to improving polymer electrolytes. Although polymer electrolytes have desirable physical flexibility to form good contact with electrode surfaces, they continually suffer from lower ionic conductivities than other electrolyte materials. Materials that are single-ion conductive are necessary to increase cation conductivity and lifetime performance of batteries. An avenue to access these necessities in LIB-SSEs is explored through boron-containing polymers with the focus to synthesize a material with a high lithium transference number. By exploiting the Lewis basic nature of borane centers to form negatively charged polymer backbones, the goal is to synthesize only cation-conductive polymer networks by incorporating the anionic component within the polymer matrix. The synthesis and electrochemical characterization of this type of polymer will be analyzed by various techniques including thermal gravimetric analysis, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and lithium transference number characterization.

Stephanie Wunder

Appearances