Incorporation of Ionic Conductive Polymers into Sulfide Electrolyte-Based Solid-State Batteries to Enhance Electrochemical Stability and Cycle Life

Sulfide-based inorganic solid electrolytes are promising materials for high-performance safe solid-state batteries.The high ion conductivity,mechanical characteristics,and good processability of sulfide-based inorganic solid electrolytes are desirable properties for realizing high-performance safe solid-state batteries by replacing conventional liquid electrolytes.However,the low chemical and electrochemical stability of sulfide-based inorganic solid electrolytes hinder the commercialization of sulfide-based safe solid-state batteries.Particularly,the instability of sulfide-based inorganic solid electrolytes is intensified in the cathode,comprising various materials.In this study,carbonate-based ionic conductive polymers are introduced to the cathode to protect cathode materials and suppress the reactivity of sulfide electrolytes.Several instruments,including electrochemical spectroscopy,X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy,and scanning electron microscopy,confirm the chemical and electrochemical stability of the polymer electrolytes in contact with sulfide-based inorganic solid electrolytes.Sulfide-based solid-state cells show stable electrochemical performance over 100 cycles when the ionic conductive polymers were applied to the cathode.

Ignition processes and characteristics of charring conductive polymers with a cavity geometry in precombustion chamber for applications in micro/nano satellite hybrid rocket motors

The arc ignition system based on charring polymers has advantages of simple structure,low ignition power consumption and multiple ignitions,which bringing it broadly application prospect in hybrid propulsion system of micro/nano satellite.However,charring polymers alone need a relatively high input voltage to achieve pyrolysis and ignition,which increases the burden and cost of the power system of micro/nano satellite in practical application.Adding conductive substance into charring polymers can effectively decrease the conducting voltage which can realize low voltage and low power consumption repeated ignition of arc ignition system.In this paper,a charring conductive polymer ignition grain with a cavity geometry in precombustion chamber,which is composed of PLA and multiwall carbon nanotubes(MWCNT)was proposed.The detailed ignition processes were analyzed and two different ignition mechanisms in the cavity of charring conductive polymers were revealed.The ignition characteristics of charring conductive polymers were also investigated at different input voltages,ignition grain structures,ignition locations and injection schemes in a visual ignition combustor.The results demonstrated that the ignition delay and external energy required for ignition were inversely correlated with the voltages applied to ignition grain.Moreover,the incremental depth of cavity shortened the ignition delay and external energy required for ignition while accelerated the propagation of flame.As the depth of cavity increased from 2 to 6 mm(at 50 V),the time of flame propagating out of ignition grain changed from 235.6 to 108 ms,and values of mean ignition delay time and mean external energy required for ignition decreased from 462.8 to 320 ms and 16.2 to 10.75 J,respectively.The rear side of the cavity was the ideal ignition position which had a shorter ignition delay and a faster flame propagation speed in comparison to other ignition positions.Compared to direct injection scheme,swirling injection provided a more favorable flow field environment in the cavity,which was beneficial to ignition and initial flame propagation,but the ignition position needed to be away from the outlet of swirling injector.At last,the repeated ignition characteristic of charring conductive polymers was also investigated.The ignition delay time and external energy required for ignition decreased with repeated ignition times but the variation was decreasing gradually.

Inter‑Skeleton Conductive Routes Tuning Multifunctional Conductive Foam for Electromagnetic Interference Shielding,Sensing and Thermal Management

Conductive polymer foam(CPF)with excellent compressibility and variable resistance has promising applications in electromagnetic interference(EMI)shielding and other integrated functions for wearable electronics.However,its insufficient change amplitude of resistance with compressive strain generally leads to a degradation of shielding performance during deformation.Here,an innovative loading strategy of conductive materials on polymer foam is proposed to significantly increase the contact probability and contact area of conductive components under compression.Unique inter-skeleton conductive films are constructed by loading alginate-decorated magnetic liquid metal on the polymethacrylate films hanged between the foam skeleton(denoted as AMLM-PM foam).Traditional point contact between conductive skeletons under compression is upgraded to planar contact between conductive films.Therefore,the resistance change of AMLM-PM reaches four orders of magnitude under compression.Moreover,the inter-skeleton conductive films can improve the mechanical strength of foam,prevent the leakage of liquid metal and increase the scattering area of EM wave.AMLM-PM foam has strain-adaptive EMI shielding performance and shows compression-enhanced shielding effectiveness,solving the problem of traditional CPFs upon compression.The upgrade of resistance response also enables foam to achieve sensitive pressure sensing over a wide pressure range and compression-regulated Joule heating function.

Hierarchical structures on platinum-iridium substrates enhancing conducting polymer adhesion

Conducting polymers(CPs),including poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrenesulfonate)(PEDOT:PSS),are promising coating materials for neural electrodes.However,the weak adhesion of CP coatings to substrates such as platinum-iridium is a significant challenge that limits their practical application.To address this issue,we used femtosecond laser-prepared hierarchical structures on platinum-iridium(Pt-Ir)substrates to enhance the adhesion of PEDOT:PSS coatings.Next,we used cyclic voltammetry(CV)stress and accelerated aging tests to evaluate the stability of both drop cast and electrodeposited PEDOT:PSS coatings on Pt-Ir substrates,both with and without hierarchical structures.Our results showed that after 2000 CV cycles or five weeks of aging at 60℃,the morphology and electrochemical properties of the coatings on the Pt-Ir substrates with hierarchical structures remained relatively stable.In contrast,we found that smooth Pt-Ir substrate surfaces caused delamination of the PEDOT:PSS coating and exhibited both decreased charge storage capacity and increased impedance.Overall,enhancing the stability of PEDOT:PSS coatings used on common platinum-iridium neural electrodes offers great potential for improving their electrochemical performance and developing new functionalities.

Bacterial Cellulose/Zwitterionic Dual-network Porous Gel Polymer Electrolytes with High Ionic Conductivity

Bacterial cellulose(BC)was innovatively combined with zwitterionic copolymer acrylamide and sulfobetaine methacrylic acid ester[P(AM-co-SBMA)]to build a dual-network porous structure gel polymer electrolytes(GPEs)with high ionic conductivity.The dual network structure BC/P(AM-co-SBMA)gels were formed by a simple one-step polymerization method.The results show that ionic conductivity of BC/P(AM-co-SBMA)GPEs at the room temperature are 3.2×10^(-2) S/cm@1 M H_(2)SO_(4),4.5×10^(-2) S/cm@4 M KOH,and 3.6×10^(-2) S/cm@1 M NaCl,respectively.Using active carbon(AC)as the electrodes,BC/P(AM-co-SBMA)GPEs as both separator and electrolyte matrix,and 4 M KOH as the electrolyte,a symmetric solid supercapacitors(SSC)(AC-GPE-KOH)was assembled and testified.The specific capacitance of AC electrode is 173 F/g and remains 95.0%of the initial value after 5000 cycles and 86.2%after 10,000 cycles.

Pressure transient characteristics of non-uniform conductivity fractured wells in viscoelasticity polymer flooding based on oil-water two-phase flow

Polymer flooding in fractured wells has been extensively applied in oilfields to enhance oil recovery.In contrast to water,polymer solution exhibits non-Newtonian and nonlinear behavior such as effects of shear thinning and shear thickening,polymer convection,diffusion,adsorption retention,inaccessible pore volume and reduced effective permeability.Meanwhile,the flux density and fracture conductivity along the hydraulic fracture are generally non-uniform due to the effects of pressure distribution,formation damage,and proppant breakage.In this paper,we present an oil-water two-phase flow model that captures these complex non-Newtonian and nonlinear behavior,and non-uniform fracture characteristics in fractured polymer flooding.The hydraulic fracture is firstly divided into two parts:high-conductivity fracture near the wellbore and low-conductivity fracture in the far-wellbore section.A hybrid grid system,including perpendicular bisection(PEBI)and Cartesian grid,is applied to discrete the partial differential flow equations,and the local grid refinement method is applied in the near-wellbore region to accurately calculate the pressure distribution and shear rate of polymer solution.The combination of polymer behavior characterizations and numerical flow simulations are applied,resulting in the calculation for the distribution of water saturation,polymer concentration and reservoir pressure.Compared with the polymer flooding well with uniform fracture conductivity,this non-uniform fracture conductivity model exhibits the larger pressure difference,and the shorter bilinear flow period due to the decrease of fracture flow ability in the far-wellbore section.The field case of the fall-off test demonstrates that the proposed method characterizes fracture characteristics more accurately,and yields fracture half-lengths that better match engineering reality,enabling a quantitative segmented characterization of the near-wellbore section with high fracture conductivity and the far-wellbore section with low fracture conductivity.The novelty of this paper is the analysis of pressure performances caused by the fracture dynamics and polymer rheology,as well as an analysis method that derives formation and fracture parameters based on the pressure and its derivative curves.

Conducting Polymer-Based e-Refinery for Sustainable Hydrogen Peroxide Production

Electrocatalysis enables the industrial transition to sustainable production of chemicals using abundant precursors and electricity from renewable sources.De-centralized production of hydrogen peroxide(H_(2)O_(2))from water and oxygen of air is highly desirable for daily life and industry.We report an effective electrochemical refinery(e-refinery)for H_(2)O_(2)by means of electrocatalysis-controlled comproportionation reaction(2_(H)O+o→2HO),feeding pure water and oxygen only.Mesoporous nickel(Ⅱ)oxide(NiO)was used as electrocatalyst for oxygen evolution reaction(OER),producing oxygen at the anode.Conducting polymer poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrene sulfonate)(PEDOT:PSS)drove the oxygen reduction reaction(ORR),forming H_(2)O_(2)on the cathode.The reactions were evaluated in both half-cell and device configurations.The performance of the H_(2)O_(2)e-refinery,assembled on anion-exchange solid electrolyte and fed with pure water,was limited by the unbalanced ionic transport.Optimization of the operation conditions allowed a conversion efficiency of 80%.

Breaking Through Bottlenecks for Thermally Conductive Polymer Composites:A Perspective for Intrinsic Thermal Conductivity,Interfacial Thermal Resistance and Theoretics

Rapid development of energy,electrical and electronic technologies has put forward higher requirements for the thermal conductivities of polymers and their composites.However,the thermal conductivity coefficient(λ)values of prepared thermally conductive polymer composites are still difficult to achieve expectations,which has become the bottleneck in the fields of thermally conductive polymer composites.Aimed at that,based on the accumulation of the previous research works by related researchers and our research group,this paper proposes three possible directions for breaking through the bottlenecks:(1)preparing and synthesizing intrinsically thermally conductive polymers,(2)reducing the interfacial thermal resistance in thermally conductive polymer composites,and(3)establishing suitable thermal conduction models and studying inner thermal conduction mechanism to guide experimental optimization.Also,the future development trends of the three above-mentioned directions are foreseen,hoping to provide certain basis and guidance for the preparation,researches and development of thermally conductive polymers and their composites.

Mussel‑Inspired Redox‑Active and Hydrophilic Conductive Polymer Nanoparticles for Adhesive Hydrogel Bioelectronics

Conductive polymers(CPs)are generally insoluble,and developing hydrophilic CPs is significant to broaden the applications of CPs.In this work,a mussel-inspired strategy was proposed to construct hydrophilic CP nanoparticles(CP NPs),while endowing the CP NPs with redox activity and biocompatibility.This is a universal strategy applicable for a series of CPs,including polyaniline,polypyrrole,and poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene).The catechol/quinone contained sulfonated lignin(LS)was doped into various CPs to form CP/LS NPs with hydrophilicity,conductivity,and redox activity.These CP/LS NPs were used as versatile nanofillers to prepare the conductive hydrogels with long-term adhesiveness.The CP/LS NPs-incorporated hydrogels have a good conductivity because of the uniform distribution of the hydrophilic NPs in the hydrogel network,forming a well-connected electric path.The hydrogel exhibits long-term adhesiveness,which is attributed to the mussel-inspired dynamic redox balance of catechol/quinone groups on the CP/LS NPs.This conductive and adhesive hydrogel shows good electroactivity and biocompatibility and therefore has broad applications in electrostimulation of tissue regeneration and implantable bioelectronics.

Highly Thermally Conductive Polymer/Graphene Composites with Rapid Room‑Temperature Self‑Healing Capacity

Composites that can rapidly self-healing their structure and function at room temperature have broad application prospects.However,in view of the complexity of composite structure and composition,its self-heal is facing challenges.In this article,supramolecular effect is proposed to repair the multistage structure,mechanical and thermal properties of composite materials.A stiff and tough supramolecular frameworks of 2-[[(butylamino)carbonyl]oxy]ethyl ester(PBA)–polydimethylsiloxane(PDMS)were established using a chain extender with double amide bonds in a side chain to extend prepolymers through copolymerization.Then,by introducing the copolymer into a folded graphene film(FGf),a highly thermally conductive composite of PBA–PDMS/FGf with self-healing capacity was fabricated.The ratio of crosslinking and hydrogen bonding was optimized to ensure that PBA–PDMS could completely self-heal at room temperature in 10 min.Additionally,PBA–PDMS/FGf exhibits a high tensile strength of 2.23±0.15 MPa at break and high thermal conductivity of 13±0.2 W m^(−1)K^(−1);of which the self-healing efficiencies were 100%and 98.65%at room temperature for tensile strength and thermal conductivity,respectively.The excellent self-healing performance comes from the efficient supramolecular interaction between polymer molecules,as well as polymer molecule and graphene.This kind of thermal conductive self-healing composite has important application prospects in the heat dissipation field of next generation electronic devices in the future.

LOW POTENTIAL ELECTROPOLYMERIZATION OF ANISOTROPIC CONDUCTIVE POLYTHIOPHENE FILMS AND FABRICATION OF ELECTRICAL DEVICES

The Complexation of thiophene with a Lewis acid with moderate acidity as a solvent, such as BF3-ethyl ether (BFEE) remarkedly lowered the electrochemical polymerization potential. The positively charged metal surface of electrode in the process of electrochemical deposition enhanced the coordination interaction between pi-electrons of thiophene unit and the metal, which makes thiophene rings lie parallel to the surface of electrode, resulting in a highly ordered polymeric structure. Because of the large intra-chain transfer integrals, the transport of charge is believed to be principally along the conjugated chains, which is much greater than the inter-chain hopping. The specific electrical resistance across the polythiophene film thickness is more than 10(4) times than that along the surface plane of the film. In this paper we review the recent development of polymerization technique by low potential electrochemical method performed in our lab and several electrical devices in which the compact polythiophene films, such as anionic and cationic sieves, and laminate film junction of undoped polythiophene derivatives were used.

Conductive polymer scaffolds to improve neural recovery

Injuries to the nervous system manifest in various forms ranging from stroke to trauma（i.e.,motor vehicle accidents,combats）to diabetic neuropathy as well as many other neurological diseases.Nerve regeneration remains a complex biological process that is challenging to address clinically.There is no effective medical treatment for central nervous system repair.

Conductive polymer hydrogel-coated nanopipette sensor with tunable size

Nanopipette-based sensors are one of the most effective tools for detecting nanoparticles,bioparticles,and biomolecules.Quantitative analysis of nanoparticles with different shapes and electrical charges is achieved through measurement of the blockage currents that occur when particles pass through the nanopore.However,typical nanopipette sensors fabricated using a conventional needle-pulling method have a typical pore-diameter limitation of around 100 nm.Herein,we report a novel conductive hydrogel-composited nanopipette sensor with a tunable inner-pore diameter.This is made by electrodepositing poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene)polystyrene sulfonate onto the surface of a nanopipette with a prefabricated sacrificial copper layer.Because of the presence of copper ions,the conductive polymer can stably adhere to the tip of the nanopipette to form a nanopore;when nanoparticles pass through the conductive nanopore,more distinct blocking events are observed.The size of the nanopore can be changed simply by adjusting the electrodeposition time.In this way,suitable nanopores can be obtained for highly sensitive screening of a series of particles with diameters of the order of tens of nanometers.

Recent progress in design of conductive polymers to improve the thermoelectric performance

Organic semiconductors,especially polymer semiconductors,have attracted extensive attention as organic thermoelectric materials due to their capabilities for flexibility,low-cost fabrication,solution processability and low thermal conductivity.However,it is challenging to obtain high-performance organic thermoelectric materials because of the low intrinsic carrier concentration of organic semiconductors.The main method to control the carrier concentration of polymers is the chemical doping process by charge transfer between polymer and dopant.Therefore,the deep understanding of doping mechanisms from the point view of chemical structure has been highly desired to overcome the bottlenecks in polymeric thermoelectrics.In this contribution,we will briefly review the recently emerging progress for discovering the structure–property relationship of organic thermoelectric materials with high performance.Highlights include some achievements about doping strategies to effectively modulate the carrier concentration,the design rules of building blocks and side chains to enhance charge transport and improve the doping efficiency.Finally,we will give our viewpoints on the challenges and opportunities in the field of polymer thermoelectric materials.

Synthesis and Crystal Structure of a Three-dimensional Mn(Ⅱ) Coordination Polymer with 3-(Pyrazin-2-yloxy)-pyridine and Azide Anion as Mixed Bridge Ligand

A three-dimensional coordination polymer [Mn2（μ1.3-N3）4（μ-PP）2]n （PP = 3-（pyrazin-2-yloxy）-pyridine） has been synthesized with 3-（pyrazin-2-yloxy）-pyridine and azide anion as mixed bridge ligand, and its crystal structure was determined by X-ray crystallography. The crystal data： triclinic system, space group P1, with a = 6.794（4）, b = 9.885（6）, c = 9.947（6） A, α = 64.170（6）, β= 84.190（8）, γ= 85.319（8）°, V = 597.7（6）A^3, Z = 1, C18H14Mn2N18O2, Mr = 624.35, Dc = 1.735 g/cm^3, F（000） = 314 and μ = 1.117 mm^-1. In the crystal, the azide anion acts as a bridge ligand and makes adjacent Mn（Ⅱ） ions connect into a two-dimensional sheet on the ab plane, then 3-（pyrazin-2-yloxy）-pyridine serves as a bidentate bridge ligand to connect neighboring sheets along

The Development of Thermal Conductive Polymer Composites for Heat Sink

The thermal and mechanical properties of the polyamide 6/boron nitride and polyphenylene sulfide/graphite composites have been investigated as a function of composition and size of fillers. The addition of highly thermal conductive h-BN and graphite gives rise to large increase （about 2 times） of thermal conductivity of individual polymer. In PPS/graphite system, the higher conductivity value was obtained when smaller graphites were added. Meanwhile, the tensile and flexural strength are reduced upon increasing filler loading.

Study on the Structure and Properties of Ordered Conductive Polymer Ultrathin Film

A Langmuir-Blodgett （LB） inducing method was firstly used to prepare single layer and multilayer conducting composite PEDOT-PSS film. The film-forming ability of ionization ODA and ODA-SA monolayer spread on PEDOT-PSS nanoparticle sub-phase and the behavior of ODA/PEDOT-PSS assembly particles on pure water were firstly investigated. The results indicated that nanoparticles in the suphase are packed in the ionization monolayer and stable complex Langmuir film is formed at the air/water interface. It has been found that the best film-forming conditions for composite film are as follows：distinct interface was formed between ODA and PEDOT-PSS layer and single layer thickness of PEDOT-PSS was about 23 nm,well accordant to the size of PEDOT-PSS nanoparticles. Different structures were designed to test the conductive ability of these composite films and a variable range hopping （VRH） model was used to explain the film conductive mechanism. The results indicated that a 3D-VRH model explained well the transferring of charge carrier in the multilayer film.

Study on the High Conductive Polymer as the Miniaturized Reference Electrode

The polypyrrole is the high conductive polymer which was coated onto indium tin oxide (ITO) glass substrate by electroplated technique to fabricate a miniaturized reference electrode.Besides,the morphology of the ITO glass reference electrode electroplated with pyrrole has been studied through the instrumental analysis utilizing cyclic voltammetry (CV). Furthermore,the sensing characteristics of the reference electrode have been measured by using commercial instrumental amplifier as the readout circuit.Using the high conductive polymer as miniaturized reference electrode has many advantages such as easy fabrication of coating polymer,without any expensive fabricating equipment,easy carry by the miniaturized technique.Hence,it is suitable for the reference electrode production.

Eyewear-style three-dimensional endoscope derived from microstructured polymer fiber with the function of image transmission

A method of fabricating multi-core polymer image fiber is proposed.Image fiber preform is fabricated by stacking thousands of polymer fibers each with a 0.25-mm diameter orderly in a die by only one step.The preform is heated and stretched into image fiber with an outer diameter of 2mm.Then a portable eyewear-style three-dimensional（3D） endoscope system is designed,fabricated,and characterized.This endoscopic system is composed of two graded index lenses,two pieces of 0.35-m length image guide fibers,and a pair of oculars.It shows good ？exibility and portability,and can provide the depth information accordingly.

PEDOT:PSS:From conductive polymers to sensors

PEDOT:PSS conductive polymers have received tremendous attention over the last two decades owing to their high conductivity,ease of processing,and biocompatibility.As a flexible versatile material,PEDOT:PSS can be developed into various forms and has had a significant impact on emerging sensing applications.This review covers the development of PEDOT:PSS from material to physical sensors.We focus on the morphology of PEDOT:PSS in the forms of aqueous dispersions,solid films,and hydrogels.Manufacturing processes are summarized,including coating,printing,and lithography,and there is particular emphasis on nanoimprinting lithography that enables the production of PEDOT:PSS nanowires with superior sensing performance.Applications to various physical sensors,for humidity,temperature,pressure,and strain,are demonstrated.Finally,we discuss the challenges and propose new directions for the development of PEDOT:PSS.