A Novel Polymer Electrolyte Matrix Incorporating Ionic Liquid into Waterborne Polyurethane for Lithium-Ion Battery

Ionic liquid has relatively high conductivity at room temperature and good electrochemical stability. Ionic liquid polymer electrolytes have some advantages of both ionic liquid and polymer. In this work, 1-alkyl-3-(2′,3′-dihydroxypropyl)imidazolium chloride (IL-Cl) was incorporated into waterborne polyurethane chain to composite all-solid-state polymer electrolyte matrices. The structure, thermal stability, mechanical property and ionic conductivity of the matrices were investigated by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA), tensile measurement and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). The results demonstrated that when the content of IL-Cl was 14 wt%, the mechanical property of film was optimized, with a maximum tensile strength of 36 MPa and elongation at break of 1030%. In addition, as for the film with IL-Cl content of 16 wt%, its oxygen index value increased to 25.2% and ionic conductivity reached a maximum of 1.2 × 10−5 S·cm−1 at room temperature, showing high flame retardancy and ionic conductivity.