Raising the conductivity of crystalline polymer electrolytes by aliovalent doping

Chuhong Zhang; Edward Staunton; Yuri G Andreev; Peter G Bruce

doi:10.1021/ja056129w

Raising the conductivity of crystalline polymer electrolytes by aliovalent doping

J Am Chem Soc. 2005 Dec 28;127(51):18305-8. doi: 10.1021/ja056129w.

Authors

Chuhong Zhang¹, Edward Staunton, Yuri G Andreev, Peter G Bruce

Affiliation

¹ School of Chemistry, University of St. Andrews, St. Andrews, Fife KY16 9ST, Scotland.

PMID: 16366585
DOI: 10.1021/ja056129w

Abstract

Polymer electrolytes, salts dissolved in solid polymers, hold the key to realizing all solid-state devices such as rechargeable lithium batteries, electrochromic displays, or SMART windows. For 25 years conductivity was believed to be confined to amorphous polymer electrolytes, all crystalline polymer electrolytes were thought to be insulators. However, recent results have demonstrated conductivity in crystalline polymer electrolytes, although the levels at room temperature are too low for application. Here we show, for the first time, that it is possible to raise significantly the level of ionic conductivity by aliovalent doping. The conductivity may be raised by 1.5 orders of magnitude if the SbF6- ion in the crystalline conductor poly(ethylene oxide)6:LiSbF6 is replaced by less than 5 mol % SiF6(2-), thus introducing additional, mobile, Li+ ions into the structure to maintain electroneutrality.