Physical Properties of Substituted Imidazolium Based Ionic Liquids Gel Electrolytes

The physical properties of solid gel electrolytes of either polyvinylidene diflurohexafluoropropylene or a combination of polyvinylidene hexafluoropropylene and polyacrylic acid, and the molten salts 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate, 1,2-dimethyl-3- n -propylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate, and the new molten salts 1,2-dimethyl-3- n -butylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate, and 1,2-dimethyl-3- n -butylimidazolium hexafluorophosphate were characterized by temperature dependent ionic conductivity measurements for both the pure molten salt and of the molten salt with 0.5 M Li + present. Ionic conductivity data indicate that for each of the molten salts, the highest concentration of molten salt allowable in a single component polymer gel was 85%, while gels composed of 90%molten salt were possible when using both polyvinylidene hexafluorophosphate and polyacrylic acid. For polymer gel composites prepared using lithium containing ionic liquids, the optimum polymer gel composite consisted of 85% of the 0.5 M Li + /ionic liquid, 12.75% polyvinylidene hexafluoropropylene, and 2.25% poly (1-carboxyethylene). The highest ionic conductivity observed was for the gel containing 90%1-ethyl-3-methyl-imidazolium tetrafluoroborate, 9.08 mS/cm. For the lithium containing ionic liquid gels, their ionic conductivity ranged from 1.45 to 0.05 mS/cm, which is comparable to the value of 0.91 mS/cm, observed for polymer composite gels containing 0.5 M LiBF 4 in propylene carbonate.