Enhanced Conductivity via Extraction of Hydrocarbon Templates from Nanophase-Separated PEO-LiOTf Polymer Electrolyte Films

ACS Omega. 2020 Aug 7;5(32):20567-20574. doi: 10.1021/acsomega.0c02794. eCollection 2020 Aug 18.

Abstract

A series of poly(ethylene oxide)-LiOTf electrolyte films were prepared using a variety of hydrocarbon templates as nanofillers, resulting in observable nanophase separation in the polymer electrolyte. Upon partial extraction of the nanofiller template, an enhanced conductivity over 2 orders of magnitude was measured using ac impedance. Scanning electron microscopy, differential scanning calorimetry, and thermogravimetric analysis were employed to characterize the porosity, composition, and mass loss of template-extracted and nonextracted film samples.