Spiros H. Anastasiadis

Abstract:

The development of materials with enhanced mechanical properties and ionic conductivity constitutes a major challenge in the area of solid polymer electrolytes (SPEs) for lithium batteries. We utilize high functionality star polymers as nanostructured additives to liquid electrolytes for the development of SPEs that simultaneously exhibit high modulus and ionic conductivity. We discuss two different cases of multiarm stars used. When high functionality PMMA stars are dispersed in low molecular weight PEO, the SPEs exhibit two orders of magnitude higher conductivity and one order of magnitude higher mechanical modulus compared to the linear PMMA analogues due to the formation of a highly interconnected network of pure liquid electrolyte that leads to high conductivity. When mikto-arm star copolymers are introduced (with PS and PEO arms), SPEs are obtained with high modulus and high ionic conductivity (close to those for practical use) due to their self-assembled morphology of highly interconnected structures formed within the PEO host. The intramolecular nanostructuring of the mikto-arm star particles and their self-assembly within a homopolymer matrix are studied by molecular dynamics simulations as well. The functionality and the arm lengths lead to an intramolecular nanostructure of the stars, which influences the overall morphology. These miktoarm stars form percolated interconnected assemblies within the PEO host as opposed to simple cylindrical micelles formed when linear diblock copolymers of equivalent characteristics are introduced into the same host.
* In collaboration with E. Glynos, P. Petropoulou, G. Nikolakakou, D. Chatzogiannakis, L. Papoutsakis, E. Mygiakis, A. D. Nega, G. Sakellariou, W. Pan, E. P. Giannelis, P. Bačová and V. Harmandaris
# Acknowledgements: This research has been co-financed by EU and Greek national funds (Action RESEARCH – CREATE - INNOVATE).