EXAFS and Related Studies of Materials for Polymer Battery Use

The effects of post preparative drying treatments on the morphology and conductivity of divalent polymer electrolyte films have been investigated in this work. The techniques used to investigate the polymer electrolyte morphology included DSC, EXAFS and VTPM. Impedance spectroscopy was employed to determine the sample conductivity as a function of temperature. The polymer electrolytes were of the form PEOn:MX2, where n represents the number of ethylene oxide repeat units associated with the cation M and typically lies in the range 4 - 100, M represents either Ni^^, Zn2+ or Co2+ and X represents the anion which was either Br" or CP- The post preparative drying treatments investigated were vacuum oven drying at 50°C (D50), 140°C (D140) and a microwave treatment (Series M). The effect of temperature on the cation and anion local geometry was studied as a function of temperature using EXAFS and a cryostatically controlled sample holder. The results indicate that the D140 and Series M samples show a marked similarity in properties in contrast to those of the D50 samples. One of the samples prepared allowed the local geometry around bromine anions in both amorphous and spherulitic regions to be probed using EXAFS. Other work in this thesis includes preliminary studies on: 1) the effects of ion interactions on PEG, a low molecular weight PEO analogue, adhered to an AI2O3 substrate, using Inelastic Electron Tunnelling Spectroscopy, lETS, 2) the continuous application of polymer electrolyte onto an anode using roller casting and myer rod, and 3) the effect of plasticiser addition on the ionic conductivity of polymer electrolyte films.

Name dc:type.qualificationname

PhD

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

Doctoral

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

De Montfort University

Year dc:date.issued

1994

Author dc:creator

• Pynenburg, Rory A. J.

Licence

• https://dora.dmu.ac.uk/bitstreams/1918b1cd-d63f-4392-a640-d27e2c666c7a/download