Significant improvement of ionic conductivity of high-graphene oxide-loading ice-templated poly (ionic liquid) nanocomposite electrolytes

Poly (ionic liquid)s are an emerging family of promising polymer electrolytes. In this study, a nanocomposite electrolyte based on ice-templated high-graphene oxide-loading poly (ionic liquid) (GO/PIL) was prepared to significantly improve ion transport of PIL. X-ray diffraction patterns exhibited that GO was well-loaded in the as-prepared composites event at high content of 50 wt%. The Raman and UV–Vis spectra demonstrated the strong interaction between GO and PIL. Morphology observations showed that PIL could well contact with GO, forming so-called "PIL&GO nanosheets" that were connected in an ionic-conducting network, which facilitated the ion transport in the PIL, as revealed by conductive atomic force microscope investigation. As a result, with a superhighway for ions built, PIL-based composite electrolyte obtained a higher ionic conductivity of 3.1 × 10−4 S cm−1 at 50 wt% GO, 775% of that of pure PIL electrolyte. Such ice-templated nanocomposite electrolytes possess potential applications for various electrochemical devices.