Electrochemistry of polyamidoamine dendrimers ester gel electrolytes

This paper described the first example of polyamidoamine dendrimers ester (PAMAM) used as a gel electrolyte with a short-chain polyethylene glycol (MPEG-400) as a plasticizer. The polymer films are solid and sticky. Background cyclic voltammetry (CV) shows a potential window between +0.7 and -0.7 V vs. Ag/AgCl. The voltammetry of ferrocene and 7,7,8,8-tetracyanoquinodimethane (TCNQ) indicates that diffusion coefficients are in the range of 10(-8)-10(-9) cm(2)/s. Ionic conductivities are approximately 10(-6) S/cm. Similar films using dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) as a plasticizer instead of MPEG-400 have demonstrated ionic conductivities of 10(-4) S/cm and reversible voltammetry. However, UV spectrophotometry shows that 70% of the DMSO is lost under vacuum, indicating the difficulty in quantifying the DMSO content when exposed to vacuum.