(684b) Tailoring the Properties of Polymer- and Silica-Supported Ionogel Electrolytes for Energy Storage Applications

A burgeoning demand for portable electronic devices, as well as an expanding global portfolio of intermittent electricity generation sources both highlight the critical need to develop reliable, safe, and efficient energy storage technologies. Recently, our group has been advancing two parallel approaches to form solid electrolyte films based on room temperature ionic liquids (ionogels) for supercapacitor applications.[1,2] The first method utilizes free radical-initiated polymerization inside an ionic liquid to produce a composite gel, while the second approach employs an acid-catalyzed sol gel reaction network to create an inorganic oxide support for the ionic liquid in situ. Ionogels are inherently safer than widely used organic solvent-based electrolytes due to their nonvolatility and no-leak nature. Optimization of ionic conductivity for fast charging and discharging in supercapacitor structures within the constraint of maintaining gel mechanical integrity will be discussed. In the best-case scenario, both polymer- and silica-supported ionogels retain nearly identical electrical properties as compared to their constituent neat ionic liquids, while also providing sufficient flexibility and robustness for intended future applications. Our recent work exploring the recovery and recyclability of ionic liquids from silica-supported ionogels using a green solvent-based process with an extremely low energy requirement will also be presented.
[1] A.F. Visentin, M.J. Panzer, ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 2012, 4, 2836.
[2] A.I. Horowitz, M.J. Panzer, J. Mater. Chem. 2012, 22, 16534.