High tensile strength and high ionic conductivity bionanocomposite ionogels prepared by gelation of cellulose/ionic liquid solutions with nano-silica
作者：Hongzan Song,* Zhiqiang Luo, Hongchi Zhao, Shanshan Luo, Xiaojing Wu,Jungang Gao and Zhigang
關鍵字：gel polymer electrolytes (GPE)
論文來源：期刊
具體來源：RSC Adv., 2013, 3, 11665–11675
發表時間：2013年
Novel bionanocomposite ionogels consisting of an ionic liquid (IL) 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium acetate
(EMIMAc), microcrystalline cellulose (MCC) and nano-silica (nano-SiO2) particles with high tensile strength
and high ionic conductivity have been successfully prepared. Dynamic light scattering (DLS) and
transmission electron microscopy (TEM) measurements reveal a homogeneous dispersion of nano-SiO2 in
the MCC/nano-SiO2/EMIMAc bionanocomposite ionogels. In order to clarify the influences of added
nano-SiO2 on the sol–gel transition process and liquid crystalline phase transition for the MCC/nano-SiO2/
EMIMAc systems, the complexes were investigated by dynamic rheological measurements, mechanical
tensile property tests and polarized optical microscope (POM) observations. The rheological results indicate
that the introduction of nano-SiO2 can induce and accelerate the gelation for the MCC/nano-SiO2/
EMIMAc solutions. By adjusting the MCC and nano-SiO2 concentrations, the gel-sol transition temperature
and elastic modulus can be well controlled and the optimized values reach 125 uC and 7 6 105 Pa,
respectively. The POM results reveal that the addition of nano-SiO2 significantly suppresses the liquid
crystalline behavior of ionogels. A more significant result is that the bionanocomposite ionogels exhibit
high ionic conductivity in the order of 1023 S cm21 at 30 uC. The ionic conductivity of the ionogels
increases with increasing temperature and decreasing MCC concentration. The above results demonstrate
that the novel bionanocomposite ionogels with high tensile strength are promising for the application as
gel polymer electrolytes (GPE) in electrochemical devices.