A critical barrier to overcome in the development of solid‐state electrolytes for lithium batteries is the trade‐off between sacrificing ionic conductivity for enhancement of mechanical stiffness. Here, a physically cross‐linked, polymer‐supported gel electrolyte consisting of a lithium salt/ionic liquid solution featuring a fully zwitterionic (ZI) copolymer network is introduced for rechargeable lithium‐based batteries. The ZI scaffold is synthesized using a 3:1 molar ratio of 2‐methacryloyloxyethyl phosphorylcholine and sulfobetaine vinylimidazole, and the total polymer content is varied between 1.1 and 12.5 wt%. Room‐temperature ionic conductivity values comparable to the base liquid electrolyte (≈1 mS cm−1) are achieved in ZI copolymer‐supported gels that display compressive elastic moduli as large as 14.3 MPa due to ZI dipole–dipole cross‐links. Spectroscopic characterization suggests a change in the Li+coordination shell upon addition of the zwitterions, indicative of strong Li+···ZI group interactions. Li+transference number measurements reveal an increase in Li+conductivity within a ZI gel electrolyte (
The suppression of lithium dendrite is critical to the realization of lithium metal batteries. 3D conductive framework, among different approaches, has shown very promising results in dendrite suppression. A novel cost‐effective and versatile dip‐coating method is presented here to make 3D conductive framework. Various substrates with different geometries are coated successfully with copper, including electrically insulating glass fiber (GF) or rice paper and conducting Ni foam. In particular, the as‐prepared copper coated GF shows promising results to serve as the lithium metal substrate by the electrochemical battery tests. The method significantly broadens the candidate materials database for 3D conductive framework to include all kinds of intrinsically insulating 3D substrates.
more » « less- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10066551
- Publisher / Repository:
- Wiley Blackwell (John Wiley & Sons)
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Advanced Materials Interfaces
- Volume:
- 5
- Issue:
- 19
- ISSN:
- 2196-7350
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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