Disulfide Metathesis-Assisted Lithium-Ion Conduction for PEO-Based Polymer Electrolytes.

The disulfide metathesis is a promising candidate in the dynamically exchanged strategy for improving the self-healing ability of polymer electrolytes (PEs). However, the enhancement effects on the ionic conductivities of PEs are generally ignored while introducing a dynamic covalent bond to PEs. Herein, the oligo(ethylene oxide)-based additive containing a disulfide bond (S-S additive) was synthesized via Michael addition reaction of cystamine and poly(ethylene glycol) methyl ether acrylate (PEGA). Short PEG chains complexed with Li in a S-S additive migrated rapidly in PEs because of the dynamically exchanged strategy of the disulfide bond. Moreover, disulfide bonds in a S-S additive possessed the ability to exchange with the cross-linked network containing disulfide bonds (S-S net). The as-prepared PEs exhibited a high room temperature ionic conductivity of 1.24 × 10 S cm, demonstrating that the disulfide metathesis-assisted Li conduction was feasible for enhancing ionic conductivities of PEs. Relative to other PEO-based PEs, these disulfide-containing PEs possessed a high Li transference number (0.54). Furthermore, the lithium-metal batteries (LMBs) assembled with PEs in the presence of a S-S additive presented stable cycle performance, indicating the promising potential of these PEs as candidates for next-generation LMBs.