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Sodium metal batteries are an emerging technology that shows promise in terms of materials availability with respect to lithium batteries. Solid electrolytes are needed to tackle the safety issues related to sodium metal. In this work, a simple method to prepare a mechanically robust and efficient soft solid electrolyte for sodium batteries is demonstrated. A task-specific iongel electrolyte was prepared by combining in a simple process the excellent performance of sodium metal electrodes of an ionic liquid electrolyte and the mechanical properties of polymers. The iongel was synthesized by fast (<1 min) UV photopolymerization of poly(ethylene glycol) diacrylate (PEGDA) in the presence of a saturated 42%mol solution of sodium bis(fluorosulfonyl)imide (NaFSI) in trimethyl iso-butyl phosphonium bis(fluorosulfonyl)imide (P111i4FSI). The resulting soft solid electrolytes showed high ionic conductivity at room temperature (≥10−3 S cm−1) and tunable storage modulus (104–107 Pa). Iongel with the best ionic conductivity and good mechanical properties (Iongel10) showed excellent battery performance: Na/iongel/NaFePO4 full cells delivered a high specific capacity of 140 mAh g−1 at 0.1 C and 120 mAh g−1 at 1 C with good capacity retention after 30 cycles. 

Abstract Solid polymer electrolytes for lithium batteries promise improvements in safety and energy density if their conductivity can be increased. Nanostructured block‐copolymer electrolytes specifically have the potential to provide both good ionic conductivity and good mechanical properties. This study shows that the previously neglected nanoscale composition of the polymer electrolyte close to the electrode surface has an important effect on impedance measurements, despite its negligible extent compared to the bulk electrolyte. Using standard stainless steel blocking electrodes, the impedance of lithium salt‐doped poly(isoprene‐b‐styrene‐b‐ethylene oxide) (ISO) exhibits a marked decrease upon thermal processing of the electrolyte. In contrast, covering the electrode surface with a low molecular weight poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) brush results in higher and more reproducible conductivity values, which are insensitive to the thermal history of the device. A qualitative model of this effect is based on the hypothesis that ISO surface reconstruction at the different electrode surfaces leads to a change in the electrostatic double layer, affecting electrochemical impedance spectroscopy measurements. As a main result, PEO‐brush modification of electrode surfaces is beneficial for the robust electrolyte performance of PEO‐containing block‐copolymers and may be crucial for their accurate characterization and use in Li‐ion batteries.