A salt water battery with high stability and charging rates made from solution processed conjugated polymers with polar side chains

Davide Moia; Alexander Giovannitti; Anna A. Szumska; Martin Schnurr; Elham Rezasoltani; Iuliana P. Maria; Piers R. F. Barnes; Iain McCulloch; Jenny Nelson

arXiv · 1711.10457

A salt water battery with high stability and charging rates made from solution processed conjugated polymers with polar side chains

Davide Moia·Alexander Giovannitti·Anna A. Szumska·Martin Schnurr·Elham Rezasoltani·Iuliana P. Maria·Piers R. F. Barnes·Iain McCulloch·Jenny Nelson

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Abstract

We report a neutral salt water based battery which uses p-type and n-type solution processed polymer films as the cathode and the anode of the cell. The specific capacity of the electrodes (approximately 30 mAh cm-3) is achieved via formation of bipolarons in both the p-type and n-type polymers. By engineering ethylene glycol and zwitterion based side chains attached to the polymer backbone we facilitate rapid ion transport through the non-porous polymer films. This, combined with efficient transport of electronic charge via the conjugated polymer backbones, allowed the films to maintain constant capacity at high charge and discharge rates (>1000 C-rate). The electrodes also show good stability during electrochemical cycling (less than 30% decrease in capacity over >1000 cycles) and an output voltage up to 1.4 V. The performance of these semiconducting polymers with polar side-chains demonstrates the potential of this material class for fast-charging, water based electrochemical energy storage devices.

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Davide Moia, Alexander Giovannitti, Anna A. Szumska, Martin Schnurr, Elham Rezasoltani, Iuliana P. Maria, Piers R. F. Barnes, Iain McCulloch, Jenny Nelson. 2017-11-28. A salt water battery with high stability and charging rates made from solution processed conjugated polymers with polar side chains. https://arxiv.org/abs/1711.10457

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