UV Curable Polybutadiene-Based Resin for 3D Printable Polymer Electrolyte

Constructing a viable UV-curable gel polymer electrolyte is essential to the development of 3D architected lithium-ion batteries with high energy and power density. Here, we report our progress on the development of a UV-curable polybutadiene-based gel polymer electrolyte with measurable ionic conductivity and mechanical strength. The UV-induced crosslinking of the polybutadiene network is achieved through the formulation of a photo-resin containing a crosslinker (1,4-butanediol diacrylate), photo-initiator (TPO-L), and photo-blocker (SUDAN I), and has been corroborated through the Raman spectra taken from resin samples before and after UV-curing. The mechanical strength of the crosslinked polybutadiene is tested using a G200 nanoindenter to ensure that sufficient strength is achieved by the crosslinked polymers. A promising ionic conductivity on the order of 10^-6 S/cm is observed via electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) upon swelling the crosslinked polymer in solutions of 9BBN and organolithium reagent. The resulting polymer electrolyte has wide implications – the future steps include incorporating the electrolyte into a conventional battery system to study the cycling performance and explore the potential to 3D print the polymers for applications in architected electrode systems.