(Invited) Polymer Blends As Electrolytes in All-Solid-State Batteries

Abstract

Advantages of polymer electrolytes include material flexibility, good interfacial compatibility and easy processability. However, these materials typically possess room temperature ionic conductivities, oxidation stability windows and mechanical strengths that are too low for them to be useful electrolyte materials in all-solid-state batteries (ASSB). One reason for this is that polymer properties that favor improved ionic conductivity such as high polymer chain mobility are generally not compatible with good mechanical strength making these properties difficult to optimize simultaneously. One strategy that has been investigated to this effect is polymer blending. The idea is that polymers with good ionic conductivity can be blended with thermoplastic or elastomeric materials that have high mechanical resistance to create a new electrolyte material with the properties of its combined parts. In this work, polymers with good ionic conductivity were combined with thermoplastic materials with high mechanical strength via melt processing methods to yield solid polymer electrolytes. The resultant electrolyte materials show promising results when implemented in composite electrodes and electrolytes for use in ASSB which will be discussed in this talk.