Nanoporous hybrid electrolytes

Oligomer-suspended SiO2-polyethylene glycol nanoparticles are studied as porous media electrolytes. At SiO2 volume fractions, [curly or open phi], bracketing a critical value [curly or open phi]y [approximate] 0.29, the suspensions jam and their mechanical modulus increase by more than seven orders. For [curly or open phi][curly or open phi]y, the mean pore diameter is close to the anion size, yet the ionic conductivity remains surprisingly high and can be understood, at all [curly or open phi], using a simple effective medium model proposed by Maxwell. SiO2-polyethylene glycol hybrid electrolytes are also reported to manifest attractive electrochemical stability windows (0.3-6.3 V) and to reach a steady-state interfacial impedance when in contact with metallic lithium.