Control of Phase Separation in Polystyrene/Ionic Liquid-Blended Films by Polymer Brush-Grafted Particles

Immiscible composite materials with controlled phase-separated structures are important in areas ranging from catalysis to battery. We succeeded in controlling the phase-separated structures of immiscible blends of polystyrene (PS) and two ionic liquids (ILs), namely, N,N-diethyl-N-(2-methoxyethyl)-N-methylammonium bis­(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)­imide (DEME-TFSI) and 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium bis­(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)­imide, by adding precisely designed concentrated polymer brush-grafted (CPB-grafted) silica nanoparticles (CPB-SiPs) prepared by surface-initiated atom-transfer radical polymerization. We discuss relationships between chemical species and molecular weights of the CPB and phase-separated structures. When the CPB was composed of a PS homopolymer of an appropriate molecular weight, the IL phase formed a continuous structure and a quasi-solid-blended film was successfully fabricated because the CPB-SiPs were adsorbed at the PS/IL interface and prevented macroscopic phase separation. We propose that CPB-SiP adsorption and the fabrication of quasi-solid films are governed by the degree of penetration of the matrix PS chains into the CPB and deformability of the CPB-SiPs. We found that the DEME-TFSI domain size can be controlled by the CPB-SiP content and that only 1 wt % of the CPB-SiPs was needed to fabricate a quasi-solid film. In addition, we investigated the ionic properties of the quasi-solid PS/DEME-TFSI-blended film. Owing to continuous ion channels composed only of DEME-TFSI, the film exhibited an ionic conductivity of 0.1 mS/cm, which is relatively high compared to previously reported quasi-solid electrolytes. Finally, we demonstrated that an electric double-layer capacitor fabricated using this film as the electrolyte exhibited high charge/discharge cycling stability and reversibility.