Single-Ion Conducting Polymer Electrolytes for Lithium Metal Polymer Batteries that Operate at Ambient Temperature

Safety issues rising from the use of conventional liquid electrolytes in lithium-based batteries are currently limiting their application to electric vehicles and large-scale energy storage from renewable sources. Polymeric electrolytes represent a solution to this problem due to their intrinsic safety. Ideally, polymer electrolytes should display both high lithium transference number (t(Li)(+)) and ionic conductivity. Practically, strategies for increasing t(Li)(+) often result in low ionic conductivity and vice versa. Herein, networked polymer electrolytes simultaneously displaying t(Li)(+) approaching unity and high ionic conductivity (sigma approximate to 10(-4) S cm(-1) at 25 degrees C) are presented. Lithium cells operating at room temperature demonstrate the promising prospect of these materials.