Novel polymers were engineered to have a rigid oxanorbornyl backbone with an oligo(ethylene oxide) conductive side chain ‘brush’ to work as a solid polymer electrolyte for lithium ion batteries. These polymers were investigated due to the oligo(ethylene oxide) chain having a significant ionic conductivity and for their potential to decouple ionic conductivity from segmental motion. The effect of the molecular weight of the polymer, as well as the length of the oligo(ethylene oxide) side chain, on the ionic conductivity was measured using electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. The overall degree of polymerization (DP) of the polymers ranged from 62-370 monomer units and the length of the oligo(ethylene oxide) side chains were either n=8 or n=12. The temperature dependence on the ionic conductivity of the polymer with a DP of 62 and an oligo(ethylene oxide) side chain length of n=12 is shown in Figure 1. This data as well as the data of the other polymers will be compared with previously published data of polymers with shorter oligo(ethylene oxide) side chains and early results show that the data in Figure 1 have a higher conductivity than those with shorter side chains and no observed crystallization.

Analyzing the effect of molecular weight on ionic conductivity of novel solid polymer electrolytes for use in lithium ion batteries

255th National Meeting (2018)

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