Funded Projects

Lithium-ion polymer batteries (LiPo) contain solid-phase polymer electrolytes as a conductive medium for charge migration. In addition to eliminating flammable organic solvents comprising traditional Li-ion batteries, LiPo cells can be manufactured in a variety of form factors and have the highest energy-per-mass across all battery types. Existing polymers used in LiPo cells typically contain electronegative heteroatoms or functional groups for interactions with cationic Li+, for example poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO). The goal of this Buffalo Blue Sky Collaboration is to address the shortfalls of existing PEO polymers for energy storage by designing novel polymer electrolytes with design principles of increasing ether-oxygen content and discovering new functional groups to interact with Li+. We hypothesize that these molecular-level changes will result in high lithium ion conductivities and ultimately enable LiPo cells that operate at room temperature. The Buffalo Blue Sky team draws upon our skills of polymer synthesis (Rzayev), thin film and membrane design (Lin), and electrochemical analysis (Cook), for the complete fabrication and characterization of next-generation polymer electrolytes and is an entirely unique research direction that aligns with the strengths of each research group.