Ionic Liquid-Incorporated Zn-Ion Conducting Polymer Electrolyte Membranes

Jianghe Liu; Sultan Ahmed; Zeba Khanam; Ting Wang; Shenhua Song

doi:10.3390/polym12081755

Ionic Liquid-Incorporated Zn-Ion Conducting Polymer Electrolyte Membranes

Polymers (Basel). 2020 Aug 6;12(8):1755. doi: 10.3390/polym12081755.

Authors

Jianghe Liu¹, Sultan Ahmed¹, Zeba Khanam¹, Ting Wang², Shenhua Song¹

Affiliations

¹ Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Advanced Materials, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Shenzhen 518055, China.
² Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Electronic Functional Materials and Devices, Huizhou University, Huizhou 516001, China.

Abstract

In this study, novel ionic liquid-incorporated Zn-ion conducting polymer electrolyte membranes containing polymer matrix poly (vinylidene fluoride-hexafluoropropylene) (PVdF-HFP) and 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium trifluoromethanesulfonate (EMITf), along with zinc trifluoromethanesulfonate Zn(Tf)₂, are prepared and investigated. It is ascertained that the optimal membrane ILPE-Zn-4 (the mass ratio of EMITf:Zn(Tf)₂:PVDF-HFP is 0.4:0.4:1), with abundant nanopores, exhibits a high amorphousness. At room temperature, the optimized electrolyte membrane offers a good value of ionic conductivity (~1.44 × 10^-4 S cm^-1), with a wide electrochemical stability window (~4.14 V). Moreover, the electrolyte membrane can sustain a high thermal decomposition temperature (~305 °C), and thus its mechanical performance is sufficient for practical applications. Accordingly, the ionic liquid-incorporated Zn-ion conducting polymer electrolyte could be a potential candidate for Zn-based energy storage applications.

Keywords: Zn-ion conducting; ionic conductivity; ionic liquid; polymer electrolyte.

Grants and funding

EFMD2020003Z/Open Project Program of Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Electronic Functional Materials and Devices, Huizhou University