Self-diffusion of lithium cations and ionic conductivity in polymer electrolytes based on polyesterdiacrylate

Abstract

The processes of ionic conductivity are studied in a polymer gel electrolyte synthesized based on polyesterdiacrylate and a low-molecular solvent ethylene carbonate. The self-diffusion coefficients of solvent molecules and Li+ cations are measured by the NMR with the pulsed magnetic field gradient. The Li+ self-diffusion coefficients increase with the increase in the solvent content and are independent of the diffusion time in the interval from 10 to 1600 ms. The latter values imply the absence of limitations for the translational mobility of lithium ions in the spatial range from 10−7 to 10−5 m. Based on the Nernst-Einstein equation, the ionic conductivities are calculated and compared with the experimental conductivities measured by the impedance method. These values coincide for high contents of solvent; for low ethylene carbonate concentrations, the calculated conductivities much exceed the experimental values.