Self-Assembled Battery Electrodes

Laboratory Directed Research and Development

Nitash Balsara, Andy Minor, Venkat Srinivasan

The goal of this program is to create new methodologies and materials for addressing the limitations of current batteries. While current batteries are limited in energy content to about 200 Wh/kg, there is no intrinsic limit on the energy density of a battery. For example, batteries with sulfur cathodes are predicted to have energy densities of 2500 Wh/kg. Similarly, the power limitations of a battery depend on the efficacy of the pathways for ionic and electronic conduction within the battery. We propose to synthesize and study model battery electrodes wherein the pathways for ionic and electronic conduction are controlled on the nanometer length scale. Functioning battery electrodes require the conducting pathways for both ions and electrons. In conventional lithium batteries, the ions are transported by a liquid electrolyte and the electrons are transported by carbon. Our objective is to synthesize a single polymer material that exhibits both ionic and electronic conductivity. Separate pathways for conducting ions and electrons would be created by the self-assembly of block copolymers. Obtaining such polymers is the first step toward the creation of self-assembled electrodes.