Characterization of new polyacrylonitrile-co-bis[2-(2-methoxyethoxy)ethyl]itaconate based gel polymer electrolytes

Since the gel polymer electrolytes based on polyacrylonitrile (PAN) host ha ve not been sufficient to fulfil the requirements as a separator of current lithium polymer battery, a new polymer host copolymerized with PAN, polyac rylonitrile-co-bis[2-(2-methoxyethoxy)ethyl]itaconate (abbreviated as PANI) , was synthesized in expectation of enhanced trapping ability of liquid ele ctrolytes. Electrical, electrochemical, thermal and mechanical studies have been carried out on PAN and PANI blended gel polymer electrolytes, complex ed with ethylene carbonate (EC and gamma -butyrolactone (BL) containing LiC lO4, salt. The addition of PANI as a host polymer in the PAN-based gel poly mer electrolytes has beneficial effects such as higher ionic conductivity, better thermal and electrochemical stabilities and enhanced ability of trap ping organic solvent, possibly due to ion chelating ability of itaconate un it, though it shows less mechanical rigidity caused by amorphization of the PAN matrix. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.