Polymers and Polymer Composites for Electrolyte Application

Aleksandra Kiyanitsa, Sergey Gaidukov, and Gerda Gaidukova  

Paula Valdena street 3/7, Riga, LV1048, Latvia Latvan State Institute of Wood Chemistry, 

Nowadays a large amount of synthetic polymers is used as packaging material, structural materials, as electric insulators [1-5]. The demand for synthetic polymers is rapidly increasing for portable electronic consumer devices. The most popular portable products are notebook computers, cellular and cordless phones, and camcorders. 

It should be noted that all portable devices depend on the battery, which is their power source. In view of battery costs and environmental considerations, the batteries used to power these portable devices should preferably be rechargeable. This means, that there is the need of engineering solid polymer electrolyte films 

Handbook of Sustainable Polymers Processing and Applications Edited byViJay KumarThakurand Manju KumariThakur Copyright 2016 Pan Stanford Pubiishing Pte. Ltd. 

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Polymers and Polymer Composites as Material for Electrolyte Application... 

Somisetti, V. S. (2014). Thermal stability and ionic conductivity of high-temperature proton conducting ionic liquid Polymer Composite Electrolyte Membranes for Fuel Cell Applications. Polymer Composites for Energy Harvesting, Conversion, and Storage, vol. 1161, American Chemical Society pp. 111-126. 

In the past five years, many ion conducting polymers and gel electrolytes have been investigated for EDLC application. Figure 15 shows the capacities of various carbon electrodes in SPE or gel electrolytes. The values listed in this figure do not satisfy the requirements for EV. However, it is expected that the requirements of supercapacitors for EV can be achieved by development of devices based on composite electrodes and gel electrolyte systems as described in this chapter. 

Some recent examples including uses as super hydrophobic surfaces [142], medical composites of spun fibers, generating scaffolds for cell attachment [138], thermoplastic elastomers [139], as a supramolecular electrolyte in a dye-sensitized solar cell [190], as a method to align polymer chains [191], or as supramolecular polymer composites [192] have been discussed previously. Still there is ample space to be explored and there definitely will be many more patents and applications in this field. 

Polymeric micelles form stable pseudostationary phases with a critical micelle concentration of virtually zero (aggregation number of 1), and are tolerant of high organic solvent concentrations in the electrolyte solution. Mass transfer kinetics are slow compared with conventional surfactant micelles, and peak distortion from mass overloading is a problem for some polymer compositions. Preliminary studies indicate that polymeric surfactants are effective pseudostationary phases in micellar electrokinetic chromatography, but only a limited number of practical applications have been demonstrated, and uptake has been slow. 

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