Summary:
Researchers in UCLA's Department of Materials Science and Engineering have developed a solution-based synthesis platform capable of generating micro and nanostructured gels, polymers, and composites with simultaneously improved safety, mechanical and ionic conductivity/transport properties.
Background:
Pore structure engineering holds immense promise across various applications, such as energy storage, tissue engineering and drug delivery, positioning it as a versatile material platform in emerging fields like soft robotics and electronic devices. The surging demand for energy storage, particularly in systems exposed to harsh environments, emphasizes the critical necessity for electrolytes that seamlessly integrate mechanical robustness, thermal stability, and efficient mass transport. However, despite their potential, conventional porous materials experience a key technological hurdle: they often excel in either diffusion/transport or mechanical performance, presenting a fundamental trade-off between the two desired properties. Striking a balance has proven difficult for conventional porous structures, and existing approaches face limitations such as complexities in synthesis, encompassing expensive raw materials and non-tunable structures. Within the context of battery separators/electrolytes, the common strategy of implementing liquid electrolytes compromises mechanical integrity, leaving devices vulnerable to freeze-induced damage and mechanical impacts. Remarkably, previously reported anti-freezing strategies involving salts or additives have proven detrimental to mechanical properties. Therefore, the urgent need arises for a novel synthesis approach capable of creating a hydrogel electrolyte that is mechanically robust, thermally stable, and mass transport-friendly simultaneously, addressing the limitations and paving the way for transformative advancements in various industries.
Innovation:
Professor Ximin He and her team have developed a solution-based synthesis platform for producing porous gels, polymers, and composites featuring a distinctive open-cell porous structure, providing exceptional and customizable mechanical properties, ionic conductivity, and thermal stability. The method, driven by generic interactions, exhibits versatility across diverse polymer frameworks, offering a facile, cost-effective, and scalable solution-based synthesis operating at room temperature. The innovation extends to the creation of highly-ionically-conductive porous structures, exemplified by an electrolyte showcasing unparalleled ion transport speed. In battery prototypes, this translated to an impressive one order of magnitude lower overpotential under the same current. Impressively, the as-prepared product also boasts tunable mechanical properties, with the highest toughness surpassing the state-of-the-art gels by a factor of 1000 and exceeding Kevlar® by 10X. The method's versatility is further demonstrated in an anti-freezing zinc-ion battery electrolyte. This electrolyte is featured with ultrahigh strength (tensile strength 15.6 MPa), freeze-tolerance (maintaining mechanical flexibility at -77 °C for 24 hours), dendrite and parasitic reactions suppression, ensuring stable performance over 30,000 cycles with negligible capacity decrease. In their culmination, these landmark properties spanning mechanical resilience, electrical performance, and thermal stability indicate clearly a new platform that is non-flammable, less prone to catastrophic thermal or mechanical failures, faster to manufacture, more flexible, longer lasting, and overall higher performing than conventional technologies present in the industry, especially those producing and relying on batteries. This innovative synthesis approach marks a significant leap forward in advanced semisolid-state electrolyte commercialization, promising transformative applications across various domains.
Potential Applications:
• Produces gel, polymer, and composite structures for energy applications, such as:
- Gel polymer electrolyte
- Solid polymer electrolyte
- Polymer-ceramic composite electrolyte
• Produces tunable gel and polymer for biomedical applications
- Tissue engineering
- Drug delivery system
• Produces materials in environmental technologies, such as water purification and air filtration
• Produces lightweight and high-strength materials in aerospace and automotive
Advantages:
• Ultra-wide range tunability of porous structures
• Ultrafast mass transport
• Flexible with tunable, superior mechanical properties
- 1000X tougher than the state-of-art toughest gels
- 10X over Kevlar® (Nature 590, 594, 2021; Adv. Mater., 33, 2007829, 2021; patent filed)
• Thermally stable, non-flammable, and anti-freezing
• Scalable, facile, room-temperature, and cost-effective solution-based synthesis
Related Papers:
Yan, Y., Duan, S., Liu, B., Wu, S., Alsaid, Y., Yao, B., ... & He, X. (2023).
Tough Hydrogel Electrolytes for Anti-Freezing Zinc-Ion Batteries. Advanced Materials, 35(18), 2211673. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/adma.202211673
Reference:
UCLA Case No. 2023-147
Lead Inventor:
Prof. Ximin He.