Synthesis, structure characterization and ionic conductivity of star-branched organic–inorganic hybrid electrolytes based on cyanuric chloride, diamine-capped poly(oxyalkylene) and alkoxysilane

A synthesis route for preparing highly conductive solid organic–inorganic hybrid electrolytes has been developed by using cyanuric chloride as the coupling core to react with diamino-terminated poly(oxyalkylene) triblock copolymers, followed by cross-linking with an epoxy alkoxysilane 3-glycidyloxypropyl trimethoxysilane via a sol-gel process. The present hybrid electrolyte with a [O]/[Li] ratio of 32 was found to be the most conductive, reaching a maximum lithium ion conductivity of 6.8 × 10−5 Scm−1 at 30 °C. The Li-ion mobility was determined from 7Li static NMR line width measurements and correlated with their ionic conductivities. The onset of 7Li line narrowing was closely related to the Tg of the hybrid electrolytes as measured by DSC experiments. Thus, the motions of the lithium cations are strongly coupled with the segmental motion of the polymer chains, which is in line with the Vogel-Tamman-Fulcher behavior as observed in ionic conductivity.