Investigation on the effect of pore size and surface area of mesoporous silica on the conductivity of solid composite electrolytes

Abstract: Solid-state batteries are gaining a lot of attention in the commecial sector today. Development of the solid state electrolytes is an important part in making commercially viable solid-state batteries. While many solid-state electrolytes are struggling with low ionic conductivity, some have shown comparatively high conductivities that can be engineered to perform better to be implemented for consumer market. Silica based solid composite electrolytes (SCEs) are one of the materials that are of huge interest as solid-state electrolytes. As a continuation of the previous research into the silica based SCE’s, the current work focuses on the study of SCEs based on the commercially available mesoporous silica (MPS) of different pore sizes and nanosized silica powder (SNP). Ionic Liquid electrolyte (ILE) based on Li-TFSI and BMP-TFSI mixture was used to prepare composities under different humidity conditions. The effect of the extent of -OH group functionalization of silica, determined by FTIR on treated and untreated powders, on ionic conductivity was also evaluated. Obtained composities were evaluated with electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and analysed with TGA to establish correlations based on particle size and pore characteristics of MPS powder. Camparison with SNP was also made in anticipation to draw correlations with MPS. It was found that the pore size and pore volume change have more impact on the conductivity compared to surafce area of commercially obtained MPS and an unexplored pheonomenon was observed in case of SNP based SCE’s. Glovebox (GB) samples at relative humidity (RH)-0.005% have higher conductivity than dryroom samples at RH-0.5%. These findings can be used for a future reference in evaluating commercial MPS based composites as solid-state electrolytes.