Showing papers by "Georgios Sakellariou published in 2018"

Leveraging Molecular Architecture To Design New, All-Polymer Solid Electrolytes with Simultaneous Enhancement in Modulus and Ionic Conductivity

Abstract: The primary challenge regarding solid polymer electrolytes (SPEs) is the development of materials with enhanced mechanical modulus without sacrificing ionic conductivity. Here, we demonstrate that when stiff/rigid polymer nanoparticles that are thermodynamically miscible with a polymer are utilized in a blend with a liquid electrolyte, the elastic modulus and the ionic conductivity of the resulting SPEs increase compared to the linear polymer blend analogues. In particular, when poly(methyl methacrylate), PMMA, nanoparticles, composed of high functionality star-shaped PMMA, were added to low molecular weight poly(ethylene oxide), PEO, doped with bis(trifluoromethane)sulfonamide (LiTFSI), the resulting SPEs exhibit 2 orders of magnitude higher conductivity and 1 order of magnitude higher mechanical strength compared to their linear PMMA blend analogues. In addition, the former remain solidlike over an extended temperature range. Key to their performance is the morphology that stems from the ability of the ...