Highly elastic energy storage device based on intrinsically super-stretchable polymer lithium-ion conductor with high conductivity

Stretchable power sources,especially stretchable lithium-ion batteries(LIBs),have attracted increasing attention due to their enormous prospects for powering flexible/wearable electronics.Despite recent advances,it is still challenging to develop ultra-stretchable LIBs that can withstand large deformation.In particular,stretchable LIBs require an elastic electrolyte as a basic component,while the conductivity of most elastic electrolytes drops sharply during deformation,especially during large deformations.This is why highly stretchable LIBs have not yet been realized until now.As a proof of concept,a super-stretchable LIB with strain up to 1200%is created based on an intrinsically super-stretchable polymer electrolyte as the lithium-ion conductor.The super-stretchable conductive system is constructed by an effective diblock copolymerization strategy via photocuring of vinyl functionalized 2-ureido-4-pyrimidone(VFUpy),an acrylic monomer containing succinonitrile and a lithium salt,achieving high ionic conductivity(3.5×10^(-4)mS cm^(-1)at room temperature(RT))and large deformation(the strain can reach 4560%).The acrylic elastomer containing Li-ion conductive domains can strongly increase the compatibility between the neighboring elastic networks,resulting in high ionic conductivity under ultra-large deformation,while VFUpy increases elasticity modulus(over three times)and electrochemical stability(voltage window reaches 5.3 V)of the prepared polymer conductor.At a strain of up to 1200%,the resulting stretchable LIBs are still sufficient to power LEDs.This study sheds light on the design and development of high-performance intrinsically super-stretchable materials for the advancement of highly elastic energy storage devices for powering flexible/wearable electronics that can endure large deformation.