Polymer: A Multifaceted Component of Lithium and Post-Lithium Batteries

Dear Colleagues,

In electrochemical energy conversion, such as fuel cells and storage, such as batteries and supercapacitors, polymers are present, and sometimes omnipresent. This Special Issue will be dedicated to their uses in batteries. While, solid state chemistry has been at the forefront of research activity for decades; because of the constant search of high-capacity electrodes, polymer research visibility deserves to be improved. Indeed, in lithium batteries, as well in post-lithium batteries, polymers are used as components of the battery electrolyte, e.g., macroporous and dense separators (filled with liquid electrolytes) or solvent-free polymer electrolytes. Furthermore, they are also used as binders in the formulation of composite electrodes, i.e., negatives and positives, with the objective of optimizing electrode capacities and, therefore, to minimize binder content. Beyond this, for the use of commercial polymers and separators, research on new functional polymers remains essential, both to increase performances and to improve the safety of batteries. Thus, in redox-flow batteries, used to smooth the electricity production of renewable energies, such as solar and wind-turbine energies, cross-over issues should be overcome using new designs of ionomer-based membranes. Regarding energy storage, even though disadvantaged by their fairly low density, recently-revisited redox organic polymers are attractive, as they can be used indifferently in lithium and post-lithium batteries. Their versatility and the infinite possibilities of molecular and macromolecular chemistries make them excellent candidates to replace, at least partly, inorganic materials.

Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

• Architectured functional polymers for polymer electrolytes.
• Organic redox polymers.
• Macroporous separators.
• Plasticized (or gelled) polymer electrolytes.
• Membranes for redox-flow batteries.
• Computational investigation of polymer electrolytes.
• Spectroscopic investigations (PFGNMR, Raman, FTIR, etc.) of polymer electrolytes.
• Formulation of composite electrodes with commercial and functional binders.

Prof. Dr. Jean-Yves Sanchez
Guest Editor

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• solvent-free and platicized polymer electrolytes
• separators
• salts, ionic liquids, solvents
• polymeric binders and electrode formulation
• spectroscopic characterizations
• thermal and thermomechanical characterizations
• lithium and post-lithium batteries
• redox-flow batteries
• redox-organic polymers