Structure and thermomechanical properties of gel electrolyte membranes made from two crystallisable polymers

这项研究计划制造和分析新材料，即凝胶混合电解质，这是科学和工业利益。凝胶共混物电解质是一种柔性固体材料，可用作可充电锂电池和其他需要高离子电导率的应用中的电解质。它由两种可结晶聚合物、至少一种溶剂和一种盐制成。这项工作的科学兴趣在于，含有两种可结晶聚合物的体系的凝胶化研究尚处于起步阶段，关于这一主题的研究成果很少。因此，关于这些凝胶共混物电解质的热机械性质（随着温度的变化在固体和液体之间的变化）如何与每种聚合物的比例以及所使用的溶剂和盐的性质相关的所有结果将对从事凝胶化的科学家产生重大兴趣，这是从工业到生物学的广泛兴趣中固有的主题。该研究的一个具体目标是开发一种凝胶混合电解质，其工作温度高于所有以前的凝胶电解质，以便它可以用于智能卡（可以存储和读取大量信息的灵活“信用卡”）等新应用。这项资助提案要求资金将Asok Dikshit博士从印度带到我们利兹大学的实验室工作，分享他在凝胶混合物的制造和分析方面的经验，以使这项研究有一个良好的开端。

This research plans to make and analyse novel materials, namely gel-blend electrolytes, which are of both scientific and industrial interest. A gel-blend electrolyte is a flexible solid material that can be used as an electrolyte in rechargeable lithium batteries and other applications where high ionic conductivity is needed. It is made from two crystallisable polymers, at least one solvent and a salt. The scientific interest in this work is that the study of gelation of systems containing two crystallisable polymers is in its infancy, with very little work published on this subject at all. Thus all results pertaining to how the thermomechanical properties (the change between solid and liquid with change of temperature) of these gel-blend electrolytes are related to the proportion of each polymer, and the nature of the solvents and salt used, will be of significant interest to scientists working on gelation, a topic that is inherent across a wide spectrum of interests from industry to biology. A specific aim of the research is to develop a gel-blend electrolyte that has a higher working temperature than all previous gel electrolytes so that it can be used in new applications such as smart cards (flexible 'credit' cards that can store and read a whole host of information). This funding proposal asks for money to bring Dr. Asok Dikshit from India to work in our laboratory at Leeds University, to share his experience on the fabrication and analysis of gel-blends to get this research off to a flying start.