Incorporating allylated lignin-derivatives in thiol-ene gel-polymer electrolytes

Elyse A. Baroncini, Joseph F. Stanzione

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

15 Scopus citations

Abstract

Growing environmental and economic concerns as well as the uncertainty that accompanies finite petrochemical resources contributes to the increase in research and development of bio-based, renewable polymers. Concurrently, industrial and consumer demand for smaller, safer, and more flexible technologies motivates a global research effort to improve electrolytic polymer separators in lithium-ion batteries. To incorporate the aromatic structural advantages of lignin, a highly abundant and renewable resource, into gel-polymer electrolytes, lignin-derived molecules, vanillyl alcohol and gastrodigenin are functionalized and UV-polymerized with multi-functional thiol monomers. The resulting thin, flexible, polymer films possess glass transition temperatures ranging from −42.1 °C to 0.3 °C and storage moduli at 25 °C ranging from 1.90 MPa to 10.08 MPa. The crosslinked polymer films swollen with electrolyte solution impart conductivities in the range of 7.04 × 10−7 to 102.73 × 10−7 S cm−1. Thiol molecular weight has the most impact on the thermo-mechanical properties of the resulting films while polymer crosslink density has the largest effect on conductivity. The conducting abilities of the bio-based gel-polymer electrolytes in this study prove the viability of lignin-derived feedstock for use in lithium-ion battery applications and reveal structurally and thermally desirable traits for future work.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)1041-1051
Number of pages11
JournalInternational Journal of Biological Macromolecules
Volume113
DOIs
StatePublished - Jul 1 2018

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Structural Biology
  • Biochemistry
  • Molecular Biology

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