Solid-State Rechargeable Batteries using Plasma Polymerization

高能量密度电池的最新进展包括固体聚合物电解质的发展，以取代传统的液体或凝胶电解质，以及有机基氧化还原材料的发展，以取代传统的插层化合物作为阴极。这两种材料的合成需要解决的问题是：(1)固体聚合物电解质的电导率比传统的液体或凝胶电解质低得多。聚合物薄膜的电阻可以通过使薄膜非常薄来降低。然而，要制造出没有针孔的超薄聚合物薄膜是很困难的。(2)固体锂电池的倍率性能可以通过使用有机硫和含硫聚合物作为正极材料而不是插入化合物（如TiS2）来提高，目前大多数薄的可充电电池都使用插入化合物。这些新的聚合物阴极也存在加工问题，因为很难形成所需的超薄薄膜而没有缺陷。PIs计划开发等离子体聚合技术，以生产固体聚合物电解质和聚合物氧化还原阴极，用于薄的固态可充电碱性电池。他们将制备和表征基于硅氧烷化合物的等离子体聚合物的固体聚合物电解质和基于等离子体聚合碳硫化合物如二硫化碳的聚合物氧化还原材料。取代的酚醛基团将被纳入硅氧烷等离子体聚合物（通过共升华/等离子体聚合技术），以制备单离子（锂，钠或钾）导电电解质。将研究沉积条件与材料性能之间的关系。基于这些等离子体聚合膜的简单电池将被构建来测试这些材料的适用性。

Recent advances in high energy density batteries have included the development of solid polymer electrolytes to replace conventional liquid or gel electrolytes and the development of organic based redox materials to replace traditional intercalation compounds as the cathode. Problems need to be addressed for the synthesis of these two materials because: (1) Solid polymer electrolytes have a much lower conductivity than conventional liquid or gel electrolytes. The resistance of the polymer film can be reduced by making the film very thin. It is difficult to make ultra-thin polymeric films, though, that are free of pin-holes. (2) The rate capability of solid state lithium batteries can be improved by using organo-sulfur and di-sulfur containing polymers as the cathode material instead of intercalation compounds (such as TiS2), which are presently used in most thin, rechargeable batteries. These new polymeric cathodes also present processing problems because it is difficult to form the required ultra-thin films without defects. The PIs plan to develop plasma polymerization techniques to produce solid polymer electrolytes and polymer redox cathodes for thin, solid-state, rechargeable, alkaline batteries. They will prepare and characterize solid polymeric electrolytes based on plasma polymers of siloxane compounds and polymeric redox materials based on plasma polymerized carbon-sulfur compounds such as carbon disulfide. Substituted phenolic groups will be incorporated into the siloxane plasma polymers (by co-sublimation / plasma polymerization techniques) to prepare the single ion (lithium, sodium or potassium) conducting electrolytes. The relationship between deposition conditions and properties of the materials will be examined. Simple batteries based on these plasma polymerized films will be constructed to test the applicability of these materials.