Physicochemical properties of poly(ethylene oxide)-based composite polymer electrolytes with a silane-modified mesoporous silica SBA-15

Mesoporous silica SBA-15 was surface-modi fled by gamma-glycidoxypropyltrimethoxy silane (GPTMS), and novel poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO)-based composite polymer electrolytes (CPE) using the silane-modified SBA-15 (SBA-15-GPTMS) as filler were prepared and characterized. The results of the low-angle X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns and Fourier-transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy indicated that GPTMS has been successfully attached to the surface of SBA-15 with a high degree of mesoscopic hexagonal pore structure. The incorporation of SBA-15-GPTMS in the PEO-LiClO4 matrix effectively reduced the PEO crystallinity and obviously improved the conductivity and electrochemical stability of the CPEs. The CPE with 10 wt.% SBA-15-GPTMS provided the highest conductivity among all the tested CPEs, about 2-3 orders of magnitude higher than that of the PEO-LiClO4 matrix below the melting temperature of PEO. The reasons that the CPEs using SBA-15-GPTMS as filler showed higher conductivity than that with SBA-15 were discussed. (c) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.