Electrification could provide many benefits towards the environment like lessening the dependence on non-renewable resources and reducing emissions when applied in the space of transportation. However, their battery packs take up a significant amount of space, decreasing the cargo capacity of EVs and payload of electric planes. Therefore, electrification of transportation options is driven largely by the advancement of battery technology and light-weighting composites with the goal of achieving a higher energy while reducing weight and saving space. 
To that end, the concept of providing structural power in the form of multifunctional structural batteries has been deemed as a potentially viable strategy to achieve both high energy density, light-weighting and space savings simultaneously. However, the scientific problems facing the development of multifunctional materials for structural batteries are especially hard to solve due to the seemingly incongruent material requirements for energy storage and structural stability. Structural battery constituents include the structural electrodes and the structural electrolytes. In particular, achieving good mechanical and conductivity properties on structural electrolyte is especially challenging due to the complicated electrochemical processes involved in batteries and the stringent mechanical requirements of structural components. In this work, a sulfonated polyether ether ketone, an engineering thermoplastic, grafted with polyethylene glycol (SPEEK-g-PEG) was studied for its multifunctional capabilities. A conductivity of 10-6 S cm-1 was achieved with SPEEK-g-PEG (SPEEK grafted with PEG 750) free-standing film paving the way for the use of engineering thermoplastics as multifunctional structural battery electrolytes.

Derrick Fam

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