IONIC-CONDUCTIVITY AND DYNAMIC MECHANICAL RELAXATION OF A 2-COMPONENT EPOXY NETWORK-LICLO4 ELECTROLYTE SYSTEM

The correlation between mechanical relaxation and ionic conductivity was investigated in a two-component epoxy network-LiClO4 electrolyte system. The network was composed of diglycidyl ether of polyethylene glycol (DGEPEG) and triglycidyl ether of glycerol (TGEG). The effects of salt concentration, molecular weight of PEG in DGEPEG and the proportion of DGEPEG (1000) in DGEPEG/TGEG ratio on the ionic conductivity and the mechanical relaxation of the system were studied. It was found that, among the three influential factors, the former reinforces the network chains, reduces the free volume fraction and thus increases the relaxation time of the segmental motion, which in turn lowers the ionic conductivity of the specimen. Conversely, the latter two increase the free volume and thus the chain flexibility, showing an opposite effect. From the iso-free-volume plot of the shift factor log at and reduced ionic conductivity, it is noted that the plot can be used to examine the temperature dependence of segmental mobility and seems to be useful to judge whether the incorporated salt has been dissociated completely. Besides, the ionic conductivity and relaxation time at constant reference temperature are linearly correlated with each other in all the three cases. This result gives an additional experimental confirmation of the coordinated motion model of the ionic hopping with the moving polymer chain segment, which is generally used to explain the ionic conduction in non-glassy amorphous polymer electrolytes.