TY  - JOUR
AU  - Weyman, Alexander
AU  - Bier, Markus
AU  - Holm, Christian
AU  - Smiatek, Jens
TI  - Microphase separation and the formation of ion conductivity channels in poly(ionic liquid)s: A coarse-grained molecular dynamics study
JO  - The journal of chemical physics
VL  - 148
IS  - 19
SN  - 0021-9606
CY  - Melville, NY
PB  - American Institute of Physics
M1  - FZJ-2018-01272
SP  - 193824 -
PY  - 2018
AB  - We study generic properties of poly(ionic liquid)s (PILs) via coarse-grained molecular dynamics simulations in bulk solution and under confinement. The influence of different side chain lengths on the spatial properties of the PIL systems and on the ionic transport mechanism is investigated in detail. Our results reveal the formation of apolar and polar nanodomains with increasing side chain length in good agreement with previous results for molecular ionic liquids. The ion transport numbers are unaffected by the occurrence of these domains, and the corresponding values highlight the potential role of PILs as single-ion conductors in electrochemical devices. In contrast to bulk behavior, a pronounced formation of ion conductivity channels in confined systems is initiated in close vicinity to the boundaries. We observe higher ion conductivities in these channels for increasing PIL side chain lengths in comparison with bulk values and provide an explanation for this effect. The appearance of these domains points to an improved application of PILs in modern polymer electrolyte batteries.
LB  - PUB:(DE-HGF)16
UR  - <Go to ISI:>//WOS:000432853800028
C6  - pmid:30307256
DO  - DOI:10.1063/1.5016814
UR  - https://juser.fz-juelich.de/record/843720
ER  -