High-Charge Density Polymerized Ionic Networks Boosting High Ionic Conductivity as Quasi-Solid Electrolytes for High-Voltage Batteries.

Solid-state electrolytes are actively sought for their potential application in energy storage devices, especially lithium metal rechargeable batteries. However, one of the key challenges in the development of solid-state electrolytes is their lower ionic conductivity compared with that of liquid electrolytes (10-2 S cm-1 at room temperature), where a large gap still exists. Therefore, the pursuit of high ionic conductivity equal to that of liquid electrolytes remains the main objective for the design of solid-state electrolytes. Here, we show a series of high-charge density polymerized ionic networks as solid-state electrolytes that take inspiration from poly(ionic liquid)s. The obtained quasi-solid electrolyte slice displays an astonishingly high ionic conductivity of 5.89 × 10-3 S cm-1 at 25 °C (the highest conductivity among those of the state-of-art polymer gel electrolytes and polymer solid electrolytes) and ultrahigh decomposition potential, >5.2 V versus Li/Li+, which are attributed to the continuous ion transport channel formed by an ultrahigh ion density and an enhanced chemical stability endowed by highly cross-linked networks. The Li/LiFePO4 and Li/LiCoO2 batteries (3.0-4.4 V) assembled with the solid electrolytes show high stable capacities of around 155 and 130 mAh g-1, respectively. In principle, our work breaks new ground for the design and fabrication of the solid-state electrolytes in various energy conversion devices.