Ionically Conductive Polymers

In order to begin describing electrically conductive polymers, several definitions of conductive polymers must be presented. There are four major classes of conducting polymers filled polymers, ionically conducting polymers, charge-transfer polymers, and electrically conducting polymers (ECPs). 

Phosphazene polymers are inherently good electrical insulators unless side-group stmctures allow ionic conduction in the presence of salts. This insulating property forms the basis for appHcations as wire and cable jackets and coatings. Polyphosphazenes also exhibit excellent visible and uv radiation transparency when chromophoric substituents are absent. 

Applications. Polymers with small alkyl substituents, particularly (13), are ideal candidates for elastomer formulation because of quite low temperature flexibiUty, hydrolytic and chemical stabiUty, and high temperature stabiUty. The abiUty to readily incorporate other substituents (ia addition to methyl), particularly vinyl groups, should provide for conventional cure sites. In light of the biocompatibiUty of polysdoxanes and P—O- and P—N-substituted polyphosphazenes, poly(alkyl/arylphosphazenes) are also likely to be biocompatible polymers. Therefore, biomedical appHcations can also be envisaged for (3). A third potential appHcation is ia the area of soHd-state batteries. The first steps toward ionic conductivity have been observed with polymers (13) and (15) using lithium and silver salts (78). 

A second class of important electrolytes for rechargeable lithium batteries are soHd electrolytes. Of particular importance is the class known as soHd polymer electrolytes (SPEs). SPEs are polymers capable of forming complexes with lithium salts to yield ionic conductivity. The best known of the SPEs are the lithium salt complexes of poly(ethylene oxide) [25322-68-3] (PEO), —(CH2CH20) —, and poly(propylene oxide) [25322-69-4] (PPO) (11—13). Whereas a number of experimental battery systems have been constmcted using PEO and PPO electrolytes, these systems have not exhibited suitable conductivities at or near room temperature. Advances in the 1980s included a new class of SPE based on polyphosphazene complexes suggesting that room temperature SPE batteries may be achievable (14,15). 

This article addresses the synthesis, properties, and appHcations of redox dopable electronically conducting polymers and presents an overview of the field, drawing on specific examples to illustrate general concepts. There have been a number of excellent review articles (1—13). Metal particle-filled polymers, where electrical conductivity is the result of percolation of conducting filler particles in an insulating matrix (14) and ionically conducting polymers, where charge-transport is the result of the motion of ions and is thus a problem of mass transport (15), are not discussed. 

An example of an ionically conductive polymer is polyethylene oxide containing LiC104, which is used as a solid phase electrolyte in batteries. 

By the time the next overview of electrical properties of polymers was published (Blythe 1979), besides a detailed treatment of dielectric properties it included a chapter on conduction, both ionic and electronic. To take ionic conduction first, ion-exchange membranes as separation tools for electrolytes go back a long way historically, to the beginning of the twentieth century a polymeric membrane semipermeable to ions was first used in 1950 for the desalination of water (Jusa and McRae 1950). This kind of membrane is surveyed in detail by Strathmann (1994). Much more recently, highly developed polymeric membranes began to be used as electrolytes for experimental rechargeable batteries and, with particular success, for fuel cells. This important use is further discussed in Chapter 11. 

A completely separate family of conducting polymers is based on ionic conduction polymers of this kind (Section 11.3.1.2) are used to make solid electrolyte membranes for advanced batteries and some kinds of fuel cell. 

Figure 11.9. Conductivity vs temperature plot for two ionically conducting crystals and for a polymer electrolyte, LiTf-aPtO40, which is based on amorphous poly(ethylene) oxide (after Ratner...

The first use of ionic liquids in free radical addition polymerization was as an extension to the doping of polymers with simple electrolytes for the preparation of ion-conducting polymers. Several groups have prepared polymers suitable for doping with ambient-temperature ionic liquids, with the aim of producing polymer electrolytes of high ionic conductance. Many of the prepared polymers are related to the ionic liquids employed for example, poly(l-butyl-4-vinylpyridinium bromide) and poly(l-ethyl-3-vinylimidazolium bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl)imide [38 1]. 

Electrolyte a substance, liquid or solid, which conducts electrical current by movement of ions (not of electrons). In corrosion science, an electrolyte is usually a liquid solution of salts dissolved in a solvent, or a molten salt. The term also applies to polymers and ceramics which are ionically conductive. 

The active layer consists of a polymer having electronic conductive, ionic conductive, and luminescent properties, is blended with an ionic salt [48]. The polymer with the required properties can be realized by a blend of a conjugated and an ionic conductive polymer [481 or by specially designed polymers [71-73],... 

At temperatures above or near the eutectic temperature of the polymer phase, CSEi values are typically in the range of 0.1-2 pFcm-2 [5], However, for stiff CPEs or below this temperature, CSEI can be as low as 0.001 pFcm 2 (Fig. 16). When a CPE is cooled from 100 °C to 50 °C, the CSE1 falls by a factor of 2-3, and on reheating to 100 °C it returns to its previous value. This is an indication of void formation at the Li/CPE interface. As a result, the apparent energy of activation for ionic conduction in the SEI cannot be calculated from Arrhenius plots of 1// sei but rather from Arrhenius plots of 7SE)... 

Figure 1 shows the temperature variation of the ionic conductivities for several polymer-electrolyte systems. At room temperature they are typically 100 to 1000 times less than those exhibited by a liquid or the best ceramic- or glass-based electrolytes [6,8], Although higher conductivities are preferable, 100-fold or 1000-fold... 

Figure 48. Evolution of the apparent diffusion coefficient (V as a function of solution ionic conductivity (x ) (Reprinted from H.-J. Grande, T. F. Otero, and 1. Cantero, Conformational relaxation in conducting polymers Effect of the polymer-solvent interactions. J. Non-Cryst. Sol. 235-237, 619, 1998. Figs. 1-3, Copyright 1998. Reproduced with kind permission of Elsevier Science-NL, Sara Burgerhartstraat 25, 1055 KV Amsterdam, The Netherlands.)...

Figure 13. Schematic diagram of the measurement of the ionic conductivity of a conducting polymer membrane as a function of oxidation state (potential), (a) Pt electrodes (b) potentiostat (c) gold minigrid (d) polymer film (e) electrolyte solution (0 dc or ac resistance measurement.133 (Reprinted with permission from J. Am Chem Soc. 104, 6139-6140, 1982. Copyright 1982, American Chemical Society.)...

Otero and co-workers208,212 have visually observed nuclei of oxidized polymer in thin polypyrrole films on electrodes. They attribute these to sites of counter-ion and solvent ingress. A nucleation model based on the growth of ionically conductive zones provides good agreement with experimental chronoamperometric responses. 

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