U.S.-Japan Cooperative Research: Structural Effects of Ion Transport in Macromolecules

该奖项将使麻省大学的William J. MacKnight教授及其同事与日本东京上智大学的绪方直也教授及其同事进行为期两年的合作。他们将制备和研究新的无溶剂、含离子聚合物配合物的结构对电导率的影响。为了获得这类聚合物中离子传导的新信息，我们将研究其化学结构、聚合物形态和动力学以及掺入盐的状态。这项工作的目的是增强我们对聚合物电导率的理解，这一现象目前在固体电解质电池中有重要应用，甚至可能最终导致聚合物半导体器件。无溶剂聚合物的传导机制是通过离子传导，但现在人们对为什么这个过程如此有效知之甚少。在这项工作中，将利用每个小组的互补专业知识：日本科学家将合成和表征离子导电聚合物，并对离子的传输特性进行电气测量；美国研究人员将利用各种物理化学技术确定这些材料的超分子结构和其他特性。

This award will enable Prof. William J. MacKnight and colleagues of the University of Massachusetts to collaborate with Prof. Naoya Ogata and co-workers of Sophia University, Tokyo, Japan, over a period of two years. They will prepare and study structural effects on conductivity in new solvent-free, ion-containing polymer complexes. Chemical structure, polymer morphology and dynamics, and the state of the incorporated salt species will be studied in order to obtain new information about ionic conduction in this type of polymer. The objective of this work is to enhance our understanding of conductivity in polymers, a phenomenon which finds important application currently in solid-electrolyte batteries and which may even result eventually in polymeric semiconducting devices. The mechanism of conduction in solvent-free polymers is by ionic conduction, but little is now understood about why this process is as efficient as it is. In this work, the complementary expertise of each group will be utilized: the Japanese scientists will synthesize and characterize the ion-conducting polymers, and make electrical measurements of the transport properties of the ions; the U.S. researchers will determine the supermolecular structures and other properties of these materials, using a variety of physico-chemical- techniques.