Graduate Student Seminar

November 01, 2024

12:45 p.m. ET

Wean Hall 7500

Ion Transport in Single-Ion Conducting Polymers: Can it be Fast Enough for Battery Electrolytes?

An understanding of the transport mechanisms for ions in single-ion conducting (SIC) polymers, polymers with ionic groups covalently bonded to the polymer backbone, is needed to design these polymers for use as electrolytes. Historically, the ionic conductivity of SICs has been too low for practical applications. In this talk I will describe how the ions move in two different SIC polymer chemistries, as deduced from a combination of experiments and atomistic molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. Understanding the molecular transport mechanisms gives some clues about how to improve the conductivity. In particular, we investigate adding a small amount of organic solvent into the polymers and find that this leads to orders of magnitude increases in conductivity. The simulations provide molecular-level insight into the ion transport mechanism in these solvent-swollen SIC polymers.

Amelie FrischknechtAmalie L. Frischknecht, Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies, Sandia National Laboratories

Frischknecht is a Principal Member of Technical Staff at Sandia National Laboratories and a staff scientist at the Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies (CINT), a DOE Nanoscale Science Research Center and user facility at Sandia and Los Alamos National Labs.  She received her PhD in Physics from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1998, and went on to postdocs at ExxonMobil Research and Engineering Company (1998-2000) and at Sandia National Laboratories (2000-2003), before becoming a member of technical staff at Sandia in 2003. Amalie is a Fellow of the American Physical Society (APS), and recently served in the Chair line of the APS Division of Polymer Physics. Her recent research primarily focuses on molecular simulations of polymers relevant to energy applications, including ion-containing polymers.

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