Novel amphiphilic polymer gel electrolytes based on (PEG‐b‐GMA)‐co‐MMA

Abstract Amphiphilic conetwork–structured copolymers containing different lengths of ethylene oxide (EO) chains as ionophilic units and methyl methacrylate (MMA) chains as ionophobic units were prepared by free radical copolymerization and characterized by FTIR and thermal analysis. Polymer gel electrolytes based on the copolymers complexed with liquid lithium electrolytes (dimethyl carbonate (DMC) : diethyl carbonate (DEC) : ethylene carbonate (EC) = 1 : 1 : 1 (W/W/W), LiPF 6 1.0 M ) were characterized by differential scanning calorimetry and impedance spectroscopy. A maximum ion conductivity of 4.27 × 10 −4 S/cm at 25 o C was found for the polymer electrolyte based on (PEG2000‐ b ‐GMA)‐ co ‐MMA with long EO groups. Moreover, the effect of temperature on conductivity of the amphiphilic polymer electrolytes obeys the Arrhenius equation. The good room temperature conductivity of the polymer electrolytes is proposed to relate to the enhancement in the amorphous domain of the copolymers due to their amphiphilic conetwork structure. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2010