Preparation of UV curable gel polymer electrolytes and their electrochemical properties

Abstract

We have investigated the effect of the number of ethylene oxide (EO) units inside poly(ethylene glycol) dimethacrylate (PEGDMA) on the ionic conductivity of its gelled polymer electrolyte, whose content ranges from 50 to 80 wt%. PEGDMA gelled polymer electrolytes, a crosslinked structure, were prepared using simple photo-induced radical polymerization by ultraviolet light. The effect of the number of EO on the ionic conductivity was clearly shown in samples of lower liquid electrolyte content. We have concluded that the ionic conductivity increased in proportion to both the number of EO units and the plasticizer content. We have also studied the electrochemical properties of 13PEGDMA (number of EO units is 13) gelled polymer electrolyte.