A class of hybrid sulfide-polymer materials
“There’s a dilemma. Is a hybrid the best of both worlds in terms of higher ionic conductivity from the inorganic and good mechanical properties from the polymer, or is it a combination of their worst properties,” said assistant professor Chibueze Amanchukwu of the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering (UChicago PME).
“When you make lithium metal batteries, the in-situ method outperforms the physical mixing method quite substantially,” added Amanchukwu.
Published in Chemistry of Materials, the study’s researchers develop a class of hybrid sulfide-polymer materials through an innovative one-pot, in situ synthetic paradigm.
Utilizing dichloroethane (DCE) as a test case, researchers showed that both polymer and inorganic form and present a controlled, homogeneous distribution of the inorganic and polymer.