Microporous polymeric composite electrolytes from microemulsion polymerization

Abstract

A new kind of microporous polymeric electrolytes was prepared from microemulsion polymerization of the system containing acrylonitrile (AN), 4-vinylbenzenesulfonic acid lithium salt (VBSLi), ethylene glycol dimethacrylate (EGDMA), ω-methoxy poly(ethyleneoxy)40 undecyl-α-methacrylate (C1-PEO-C11-MA-40), and water. The polymerized-microemulsion solids or membranes have open-cell porous microstructures. The water content in membranes can readily be exchanged with many organic solvents such as γ-butyrolactone (BL), a mixture of ethylene carbonate (EC) and dimethyl carbonate (DMC) or propylene carbonate (PC) and EC. The membranes can also be filled with electrolyte solutions such as 1 M LiBF4/BL, 1 M LiSO3CF3/PC-EC, or 1 M LiClO4/EC-DMC to form polymeric composite electrolytes. Such composite electrolytes, exhibiting ionic conductivities in the area of 10-3 S cm-1 (25 °C), may be used in many electrochemical devices.