Diversity-Oriented Synthesis of Polymers of Intrinsic Microporosity with Explicit Solid Solvation Cages for Lithium Ions

TL;DR

This paper presents a synthetic strategy for creating microporous polymer membranes with solid solvation cages that enhance lithium-ion transport, potentially improving high-voltage lithium-metal batteries.

Contribution

It introduces a diversity-oriented synthesis method for microporous polymers with explicit solvation cages, surpassing conventional limits in membrane permeability and selectivity.

Findings

Membranes with solid solvation cages show higher ionic conductivity.

Lead membranes exhibit increased cation transference number.

Potential application as dendrite-suppressing interlayers in batteries.

Abstract

Here, we describe a diversity-oriented synthetic strategy for microporous polymer membranes from which we identified those whose FVEs serve as solid solvation cages for lithium ions. Lead candidate membranes featuring such ion solvation cages exhibited both higher ionic conductivity and higher cation transference number than control membranes where FVEs were aspecific, which indicates conventional bounds for membrane permeability and selectivity for ion transport can be overcome. Such membranes show promise as dendrite-suppressing anode-electrolyte interlayers in high-voltage lithium-metal batteries for electric mobility.