Regensburg 2025 – wissenschaftliches Programm

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CPP: Fachverband Chemische Physik und Polymerphysik

CPP 40: Energy Storage and Batteries II

CPP 40.5: Vortrag

Freitag, 21. März 2025, 10:30–10:45, H34

Polymer-nano-tufts: A hairy story of limited conductivity — •Martin Tress, Alaa Yussef Hassan, Nico Junkers, and Wing Kit Or — Peter-Debye-Institute for Soft Matter Research, Leipzig University, Leipzig, Germany

Here we present an approach to study conductivity in small polymer aggregates of as few as ten chains using dielectric spectroscopy [Macromol Chem Phys, 224 (2023) 2200452]. For that, a nano-structured electrode arrangement is combined with several physico-chemical surface modifications to deposit a regular pattern of gold nanoparticles onto which end-functionalized polymer chains are grafted to create tuft-like ensembles of individualized chain aggregates. For polyethylene, pronounced changes in conductivity are observed in tufts compared to bulk with details indicating an alteration of the type of charge transport. This might signal a switch from fast inter-chain ion hopping, dominating in bulk, to slower intra-chain ion hopping in the tufts attributed to the chain configurations and orientation forced by the grafting. Consequently, this could be a more general phenomenon of polymer-solid interfaces that may explain significantly increased electrode polarization and interfacial resistance in ion-conducting polymers, potentially diminishing their performance. Hence, the hypothesis, that bottle-brush architectures could reduce these unwanted effects, was developed. Supported by preliminary results, this might be a step to improve polymeric electrolytes for various fields ranging from solid-state electrolyte batteries to ion-conducting fuel cell membranes.

Keywords: polymer electrolyte; dielectric spectroscopy; spatial confinement; ion conductivity