Structure and properties of Li-ion conducting polymer gel electrolytes based on ionic liquids of the pyrrolidinium cation and the bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl)imide anion

We have investigated the structure and physical properties of Li-ion conducting polymer gel electrolytes functionalized with ionic liquid/lithium salt mixtures. The membranes are based on poly(vinylidene fluoride-co-hexafluoropropylene) copolymer, PVdF-HFP, and two ionic liquids: pyrrolidinium cations, N-butyl-N-methylpyrrolidinium (PyR14+), N-butyl-N-ethylpyrrolidinium (PyR24+), and bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl) imide anion (TFSI). The ionic liquids where doped with 0.2 mol kg(-1) LiTFSI. The resulting membranes are freestanding, flexible, and nonvolatile. The structure of the polymer and the interactions between the polymer and the ionic liquid electrolyte have been studied using Raman spectroscopy. The ionic conductivity of the membranes has been studied using dielectric spectroscopy whereas the thermal properties were investigated using differential scanning caloriometry (DSC). These results show that there is a weak, but noticeable, influence on the physical properties of the ionic liquid by the confinement in the membrane. We observe a change in the Li-ion coordination, conformation of the anion, the fragility and a slight increase of the glass transition temperatures for IL/LiTFSI mixtures in the membranes compared to the neat mixtures. The effect can be related to the confinement of the liquid in the membrane and/or to interactions with the PVdF-HFP polymer matrix where the crystallinity is decreased compared to the starting polymer powder. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.