Luminescent Ionogels with Excellent Transparency, High Mechanical Strength, and High Conductivity.

Lumi Tao,Zailai Xie,Dan Wu,Qiao-Hua Wei,Andreas Taubert,Yuchuan Liu

doi:10.3390/nano10122521

Lumi Tao, Zailai Xie + Show 4 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/nano10122521

Copy DOI

Journal: Nanomaterials	Publication Date: Dec 15, 2020
Citations: 3	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: Fuzhou University, University of Potsdam

Abstract

The paper describes a new kind of ionogel with both good mechanical strength and high conductivity synthesized by confining the ionic liquid (IL) 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium bis(trifluoromethane sulfonyl)imide ([Bmim][NTf2]) within an organic–inorganic hybrid host. The organic–inorganic host network was synthesized by the reaction of methyltrimethoxysilane (MTMS), tetraethoxysilane (TEOS), and methyl methacrylate (MMA) in the presence of a coupling agent, offering the good mechanical strength and rapid shape recovery of the final products. The silane coupling agent 3-methacryloxypropyltrimethoxysilane (KH-570) plays an important role in improving the mechanical strength of the inorganic–organic hybrid, because it covalently connected the organic component MMA and the inorganic component SiO2. Both the thermal stability and mechanical strength of the ionogel significantly increased by the addition of IL. The immobilization of [Bmim][NTf2] within the ionogel provided the final ionogel with an ionic conductivity as high as ca. 0.04 S cm−1 at 50 °C. Moreover, the hybrid ionogel can be modified with organosilica-modified carbon dots within the network to yield a transparent and flexible ionogel with strong excitation-dependent emission between 400 and 800 nm. The approach is, therefore, a blueprint for the construction of next-generation multifunctional ionogels.

Highlights

Ionic liquids (ILs) have demonstrated great potential for applications in catalysis [1,2,3], separation [4,5], as electrolyte [6], and in sensors [7]
The major advance over existing IGs is the fact that the combination of sol-gel chemistry with radical polymerization leads to robust, yet flexible, IGs with adjustable mechanical properties, depending on the precursor ratios
The silane coupling agent 3-methacryloxypropyltrimethoxysilane acted as a bifunctional crosslinker tightly connecting the polymer network with the silica network, providing access to

Summary

Introduction

Ionic liquids (ILs) have demonstrated great potential for applications in catalysis [1,2,3], separation [4,5], as electrolyte [6], and in sensors [7] This is due to their extraordinary properties such as high chemical and thermal stability, high ion conductivity, affinity to inorganic compounds, and wide electrochemical stability windows. IGs have been considered for use as solid electrolytes [20,21], solid actuators [22,23], and heterogeneous catalysts [24,25] These applications often rely on good mechanical strength while maintaining high chemical stability and ionic conductivity. Silica-based IGs can exhibit a tunable phase behavior of ILs [35] and have ionic conductivities as high as 10−4 S cm−1 These IGs are brittle and only have a low mechanical strength. Luminescent organisilica-containing carbon dots (CDs) can be homogeneously distributed in the IG to yield transparent, flexible, ion conducting, and blue light emitting monolithic materials

Materials and Methods

A2 A3 A4 A5 A6 A7 A8

Findings

Conclusions