TY - JOUR A1 - Shirshova, N. A1 - Bismarck, A. A1 - Carreyette, S. A1 - Fontana, Q.P.V. A1 - Greenhalgh, E.S. A1 - Jacobsson, P. A1 - Johansson, P. A1 - Marczewski, M.J. A1 - Kalinka, Gerhard A1 - Kucernak, A.R.J. A1 - Scheers, J. A1 - Shaffer, M.S.P. A1 - Steinke, J.H.G. A1 - Wienrich, Malte T1 - Structural supercapacitor electrolytes based on bicontinuous ionic liquid-epoxy resin systems N2 - 'Structural electrolytes' retain the desirable mechanical characteristics of structural (epoxy) resins whilst introducing sufficient ionic conductivity to operate as electrolytes in electrochemical devices. Here, a series of ionic liquid–epoxy resin composites were prepared to identify the optimum system microstructure required to achieve a high level of multifunctionality. The ionic conductivity, mechanical properties, thermal stability and morphology of the cured epoxy based structural electrolytes were studied as a function of phase composition for three fully formulated high performance structural epoxy systems. At only 30 wt% of structural resin and 70 wt% of ionic liquid based electrolyte, stiff monolithic plaques with thicknesses of 2–3 mm were obtained with a room temperature ionic conductivity of 0.8 mS cm-1 and a Young's modulus of 0.2 GPa. This promising performance can be attributed to a long characteristic length scale spinodal microstructure, suggesting routes to further optimisation in the future. KW - Epoxy KW - Ionic liquid KW - Supercapacitor PY - 2013 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1039/c3ta13163g SN - 2050-7496 SN - 2050-7488 VL - 1 IS - 48 SP - 15300 EP - 15309 PB - RSC CY - London [u.a.] AN - OPUS4-29735 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Shirshova, N. A1 - Bismarck, A. A1 - Greenhalgh, E.S. A1 - Johansson, P. A1 - Kalinka, Gerhard A1 - Marczewski, M.J. A1 - Shaffer, M.S.P. A1 - Wienrich, Malte T1 - Composition as a means to control morphology and properties of epoxy based dual-phase structural electrolytes N2 - Structural electrolytes were prepared using a fully formulated commercially available high performance epoxy resin (MTM57) and an ionic liquid based electrolyte: lithium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide (LiTFSI) dissolved in 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide (EMIM-TFSI). Through a systematic study, the composition of the formulations was found to have a greater effect than the curing temperature on the morphology and properties of the resulting structural electrolytes. The presence of lithium salt is essential to form a structurally homogeneous electrolyte. Bicontinuous morphologies containing continuous (coarse) epoxy networks surrounded by connected spherical epoxy nodules were obtained with different length scales upon varying the lithium salt concentration. Increasing the LiTFSI concentration improved the miscibility of MTM57 with the electrolyte and decreased the characteristic length scale of the resulting bicontinuous microstructure. The properties of the structural electrolytes correlated with the morphology, showing increased Young’s modulus and decreased ionic conductivity with increasing lithium salt concentration. The miscibility of the epoxy system with the electrolyte was also improved by substitution of EMIM-TFSI with an equal weight of an aprotic organic solvent, propylene carbonate (PC); however, the window of PC concentrations which resulted in structural electrolytes with bicontinuous microstructures was very narrow; at PC concentrations above 1 wt %, gel-like polymers with no permanent mesoporosity were obtained. KW - Functional composites KW - Mechanical properties KW - Elastic properties KW - Epoxy KW - Morphology KW - Electrolyte PY - 2014 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1021/jp507952b SN - 1932-7447 SN - 1089-5639 VL - 118 IS - 49 SP - 28377 EP - 28387 PB - Soc. CY - Washington, DC AN - OPUS4-34565 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -