Aprotic Polymer Electrolytes and Their Applications

Polymers, or plastic materials, have pervaded most technical applications in the industrial sector. This chapter summarizes the various types of conduction that are possible in plastics, then focuses on one particular category of conducting polymers, namely, aprotic polymer electrolytes, which generally consist of a metallic salt dissociated by a solvating aprotic polymer. Poly electrolytes can, in principle, be modified to offer greater and more specific electrical conductivity. Armand has explained the ionic conduction observed for polyethylene oxide-alkali metal complexes by means of a model based first on the helical channel structure frequently associated with polymers and, second, on the conduction mechanisms in crystalline solids. Polymer electrolytes seem to favor the cyclability of lithium batteries, which illustrates results obtained for various positive and negative electrode materials with different polymers and lithium salts.