Ionic conductivity is an important phenomenon for the design of batteries, supercapacitors and other energy storage technologies. We therefore examine the effect of in-chain triazole rings, on the lithium ion conductivity of oligo(ethylene glycol) systems. The 1,2,3 -triazole moiety was chosen because of the prominence of copper catalyzed alkyne azide cyclization chemistry (CUAAC) in the synthesis and post synthetic modification of polymers.  Monodisperse model compounds were synthesized containing increasing numbers of triazoles per chain, with ether oxygen to triazole ratios of 8:1, 6:1, 4:1 and 3:1.  G3(MP2) calculations on model solvent shells showed that binding energies in four coordinate complexes of glymes and glymes with one triazole were roughly comparable.  Triazoles where shown to increase the glass transition temperature (Tg) of the model compounds, which was strongly correlated with the room temperature conductivity of salt composites of the models. Single crystal XRD of the 3:1 model compound showed that triazoles interact in bulk through dipole-dipole interactions.  It was concluded that the triazole rings affected the conductivity most signficantly by modulating the dynamics of the oligomer chains rather than directly interacting with lithium ions.

1,2,3-Triazoles as pseudo-ether moieties in oligo(ethylene glycol) based lithium ion electrolytes: An experimental and ab initio study

247th National Meeting (2014)

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