Synthesis of Monodisperse Silica Particles Grafted with Concentrated Ionic Liquid-Type Polymer Brushes by Surface-Initiated Atom Transfer Radical Polymerization for Use as a Solid State Polymer Electrolyte

Takashi Morinaga; Saika Honma; Takeo Ishizuka; Toshio Kamijo; Takaya Sato; Yoshinobu Tsujii

doi:10.3390/polym8040146

Synthesis of Monodisperse Silica Particles Grafted with Concentrated Ionic Liquid-Type Polymer Brushes by Surface-Initiated Atom Transfer Radical Polymerization for Use as a Solid State Polymer Electrolyte

Polymers (Basel). 2016 Apr 16;8(4):146. doi: 10.3390/polym8040146.

Authors

Takashi Morinaga^{1

2}, Saika Honma³, Takeo Ishizuka⁴, Toshio Kamijo⁵, Takaya Sato^{6

7}, Yoshinobu Tsujii^{8

9}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Creative Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Tsuruoka College, 104 Sawada, Inooka, Tsuruoka, Yamagata 997-8511, Japan. morinaga@tsuruoka-nct.ac.jp.
² Global Research Center for Environment and Energy based on Nanomaterials Science (GREEN), National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), 1-1 Namiki, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-0044, Japan. morinaga@tsuruoka-nct.ac.jp.
³ Department of Creative Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Tsuruoka College, 104 Sawada, Inooka, Tsuruoka, Yamagata 997-8511, Japan. saika@tsuruoka-nct.ac.jp.
⁴ Department of Creative Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Tsuruoka College, 104 Sawada, Inooka, Tsuruoka, Yamagata 997-8511, Japan. takeo.ishizuka@live.jp.
⁵ Department of Creative Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Tsuruoka College, 104 Sawada, Inooka, Tsuruoka, Yamagata 997-8511, Japan. kamijo@tsuruoka-nct.ac.jp.
⁶ Department of Creative Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Tsuruoka College, 104 Sawada, Inooka, Tsuruoka, Yamagata 997-8511, Japan. takayasa@tsuruoka-nct.ac.jp.
⁷ Global Research Center for Environment and Energy based on Nanomaterials Science (GREEN), National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), 1-1 Namiki, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-0044, Japan. takayasa@tsuruoka-nct.ac.jp.
⁸ Global Research Center for Environment and Energy based on Nanomaterials Science (GREEN), National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), 1-1 Namiki, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-0044, Japan. tsujii@scl.kyoto-u.ac.jp.
⁹ Institute for Chemical Research, Kyoto University, Uji, Kyoto 611-0011, Japan. tsujii@scl.kyoto-u.ac.jp.

Abstract

A polymerizable ionic liquid, N,N-diethyl-N-(2-methacryloylethyl)-N-methylammonium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide (DEMM-TFSI), was polymerized via copper-mediated atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP). The polymerization proceeded in a living manner producing well-defined poly(DEMM-TFSI) of target molecular weight up to about 400 K (including a polycation and an counter anion). The accurate molecular weight as determined by a GPC analysis combined with a light scattering measurement, and the molecular weight values obtained exhibited good agreement with the theoretical values calculated from the initial molar ratio of DEMM-TFSI and the monomer conversion. Surface-initiated ATRP on the surface of monodisperse silica particles (SiPs) with various diameters was successfully performed, producing SiPs grafted with well-defined poly(DEMM-TFSI) with a graft density as high as 0.15 chains/nm². Since the composite film made from the silica-particle-decorated polymer brush and ionic liquid shows a relatively high ionic conductivity, we have evaluated the relationship between the grafted brush chain length and the ionic conductivity.

Keywords: ionic conductivity; ionic liquid type polymer brush; precise molecular weight analysis; solid state polymer electrolyte; surface initiated atom transfer radical polymerization.