Electrodes and electrolytes for Li ion polymer-based batteries and supercapacitors

Several polymeric materials for energy storage devices have been prepared. On one side, solid polymer electrolytes have been obtained using polyethylene oxide (POE) as polymer matrix, with pseudo-solid behavior due to the use of sepiolite modified with D-a-tocoferol-polyethyleneglycol 1000 succinate (TPGS-S) as filler. These electrolytes were processed by melt compounding, incorporating room temperature ionic liquids (RTILs) as liquid phase and different lithium salts. The electrolytes obtained present an ionic conductivity over 10^-3 at 25 ºC. Moreover, several different conjugated polymers have been synthetized, such as poly(3,4-ethylenedioxithiophene) (PEDOT), poly(3,4-propylenedioxithiophene) PolyProDOT and polyaniline (PANI) as electrode active material with surface electronic conductivities up to 6 S/cm. Electrical, rheological and thermal properties have been evaluated for their application in pseudocapacitors and batteries as electrolytes and electrodes.