Sugar-based polymers for renewable, degradable and efficient battery electrolytes

用于可再生、可降解和高效电池电解质的糖基聚合物

• 批准号: 2439911
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: University of Bath
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Studentship
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2020 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-2439911
• 关键词: Sugar; based; polymers; renewable; degradable

Context of Research:As the world transitions towards a low carbon economy, storing the energy generated by intermittent renewablesources is crucial. Rechargeable lithium-based batteries are promising technologies due to their high energycapacity. However, the liquid electrolytes employed in lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) currently available on the marketpose safety issues including flammability and release of toxic products when damaged. Using a polymer doped withion salts as a Solid Polymer Electrolyte (SPE) is a safer and lightweight alternative, which has also been shown toincrease battery life. Poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) mixed with ion salts is the most popular and researched SPE.However, it has many shortcomings including poor ionic conductivity and mechanical strength but no majoraltenatives exist.The Buchard group has previously developed a platform of functionalisable sugar-based polymers, which arehypothesised to be suitable to develop novel high-performance SPEs:1. The high oxygen content of these sugar-based polymers will promote coordination and therefore solubility of ionsalts.2. The structure and properties of these polymers can be varied to explore a large chemical space relevant to severalion mobility mechanisms.3. These polymers are renewable, (bio)degradable and non-toxic.Aims and objectives of research project:The aim of this PhD research project is to develop a range of novel SPEs based upon polymers derived from naturalsugars.The objectives of this project are: 1) Synthesise a series of sugar-based polymers targeted towards cation transport.This will be carried out using a range of established methodologies to prepare various cyclic monomers with differentlinkages and diverse functional groups. These monomers will be polymerised using controlled polymerisationtechniques and analysis of the resulting materials will be performed to establish their structure/properties relationship.2) Prepare solid polymer electroly tes by combining these polymers with ion salts via solvent casting from solution.The SPEs will be characterised with various techniques including thermogravimetric analysis and differentialscanning calorimetry. Electrochemical performance of the SPEs will be investigated by electron impedancespectroscopy to assess the SPE's suitability as a battery electrolyte material.Potential applications and benefits:The main potential application of this research is as a replacement to liquid electrolytes traditionally using incommercial lithium-ion batteries. This is beneficial as by replacing liquid electrolytes with SPEs the safety of thebatteries will be improved due to the reduced flammability and no leakage of toxic by-products if the battery isdamaged. SPEs hold great potential for the next generation of rechargeable batteries, including those based onmultivalent and abundant metal anodes (Mg, Ca). Furthermore, another benefit is that these polymers are renewable,(bio)degradable and non-toxic, which would minimise the carbon footprint of the batteries and facilitate recycling ofthe precious elements involved in their manufacture. Without legitimising a thrown-away culture, biodegradable SPEscould also find a place in short-lived devices, that are not retrieved from the environment.The second supervisor to this project is Prof. Frank Marken who has expertise in electrochemistry and will be able toprovide support in electrochemical analysis of SPEs.

研究背景：随着世界向低碳经济过渡，储存间歇性可再生能源发电所产生的能源至关重要。可充电锂基电池由于其高能量容量而成为有前途的技术。然而，目前市场上可获得的锂离子电池（LIB）中使用的液体电解质存在安全问题，包括易燃性和损坏时释放有毒产物。使用掺杂离子盐的聚合物作为固体聚合物电解质（SPE）是一种更安全、更轻便的替代品，也被证明可以延长电池寿命。聚氧化乙烯（PEO）与离子盐的混合物是目前研究最多的SPE，但其存在离子导电性差、机械强度低等缺点，而且没有主要的改性剂。这些糖基聚合物的高氧含量将促进离子盐的配位和溶解性。这些聚合物的结构和性能可以改变，以探索与几种流动机制相关的大化学空间。本研究项目的目的是开发一系列基于天然糖的聚合物的新型SPE，本项目的目标是：1）合成一系列针对阳离子转运的糖基聚合物，这将使用一系列已建立的方法来制备具有不同连接和不同官能团的各种环状单体。这些单体将使用受控聚合技术进行聚合，并对所得材料进行分析，以建立其结构/性能关系。2）通过从溶液中溶剂浇铸将这些聚合物与离子盐结合，制备固体聚合物电解质。SPE将使用各种技术进行表征，包括热重分析和差示扫描量热法。SPE的电化学性能将通过电子阻抗谱法进行研究，以评估SPE作为电池电解质材料的适用性。潜在的应用和好处：本研究的主要潜在应用是作为传统上使用incommercial锂离子电池的液体电解质的替代品。这是有益的，因为通过用SPE代替液体电解质，电池的安全性将得到改善，因为降低了易燃性，并且如果电池损坏，不会泄漏有毒副产品。SPE在下一代可充电电池中具有巨大的潜力，包括那些基于多价和丰富的金属阳极（Mg，Ca）的电池。此外，另一个好处是这些聚合物是可再生的，（生物）可降解的和无毒的，这将最大限度地减少电池的碳足迹，并促进其制造中涉及的贵重元素的回收。在不使一次性文化合法化的情况下，可生物降解的SPEs也可以在寿命短的设备中找到一席之地，这些设备不能从环境中回收。该项目的第二位主管是Frank马尔肯教授，他在电化学方面具有专业知识，将能够为SPEs的电化学分析提供支持。

项目成果

Cross-Linking of Sugar-Derived Polyethers and Boronic Acids for Renewable, Self-Healing, and Single-Ion Conducting Organogel Polymer Electrolytes.

• DOI: 10.1021/acsaem.2c03937
• 发表时间: 2023-03-13
• 期刊: ACS APPLIED ENERGY MATERIALS
• 影响因子: 6.4
• 作者: Daniels, Emma L.;Runge, James R.;Oshinowo, Matthew;Leese, Hannah S.;Buchard, Antoine
• 通讯作者: Buchard, Antoine